THE  RIVERSIDE  HISTORY 

OF   THE 

UNITED   STATES 


WILLIAM   E.    DODD,   EDITOR 


THE  RIVERSIDE  HISTORY 
OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

WILLIAM  E.  DODD,  EDITOR 


I.  BEGINNINGS    OF    THE  AMERICAN  PEO 
PLE.  By  CARL  LOTUS  BECKER,  Professor  of  European 
History,  University  of  Kansas. 

II.  UNION  AND  DEMOCRACY.  By  ALLEN  JOHN 
SON,  Professor  of  American  History,  Yale  University. 

III.  EXPANSION  AND  CONFLICT.  By  WILLIAM 
E.  DODD,  Professor  of  American  History,  University  of 
Chicago. 

IV.  THE  NEW  NATION.   By  FREDERIC  L.  PAXSON, 
Professor  of  History,  University  of  Wisconsin. 


HOUGHTON    MIFFLIN   COMPANY 
BOSTON          NEW   YORK          CHICAGO 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE 
AMERICAN  PEOPLE 


BY 
CARL  LOTUS  BECKER 

PEOFESSOE  OF  EUEOPEAN  HISTOEY 
UNIVEESITY  OF  KANSAS 


HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

BOSTON          NEW   YORK          CHICAGO 

lltoerji&e 


COPYRIGHT,    1915,   BY   CARL   LOTUS   BECKER 
ALL   RIGHTS   RESERVED 

First  impression  December  igi4 
Reprinted  August  1915 


Cfce  fttorrfiite  JJress 

CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
U.S.*. 


THE  RIVERSIDE  HISTORY 
OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

EDITOR'S  INTRODUCTION 

IN  the  following  volumes  the  authors  seek  to  pre 
sent  a  brief  account  of  the  beginnings,  development, 
and  final  unity  of  the  people  of  the  United  States. 
There  are  many  histories  of  the  country,  many  bi 
ographies  which  are  in  large  measure  histories;  but 
these  are  exhaustive  works  traversing  minutely  cer 
tain  periods,  like  Rhodes's  History  of  the  United 
States  from  1850  to  1877,  or  Nicolay  and  Hay's 
Abraham  Lincoln :  A  History ;  or  they  are  shorter 
"  patriotic  "  accounts  which  seek  to  prove  something, 
or  which  fail  to  tell  the  whole  story.  Important  as 
these  classes  of  historical  literature  are,  they  hardly 
suffice  for  the  teachers  of  advanced  college  classes, 
or  for  business  and  professional  men  who  would  like 
to  know  how  the  isolated  European  plantations  or 
corporations  in  North  America  became  in  so  short  a 
time  the  great  and  wealthy  nation  of  to-day. 

To  meet  these  needs,  that  is,  to  describe  in  proper 
proportion  and  with  due  emphasis,  but  in  the  brief 
space  of  four  short  volumes,  the  forces,  influences, 
and  masterful  personalities  which  have  made  the 
country  what  it  is,  has  not  been  an  easy  task.  For, 
contrary  to  the  view  of  European  students,  American 
history  is  not  simple.  The  hostile  camps  of  Puritans 
and  Church  of  England  men,  the  Dutch  of  New 


vi  EDITOR'S   INTRODUCTION 

Amsterdam  and  the  Catholics  of  Maryland,  coulcf 
hardly  be  expected  to  merge  into  a  single  state 
without  violent  struggle.  Nor  could  the  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  Scotch  Calvinists,  militant  enemies  of 
England  and  all  her  ways,  who  seized  and  held  the  fer 
tile  highlands  of  the  Middle  and  Southern  colonies,  sub 
mit  quietly  to  any  program  not  of  their  own  making. 
And  again,  in  the  thirties  and  fifties  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  millions  of  people  speaking  a  strange  tongue 
sought  asylum  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  —  an  isolated 
region  whose  early  inhabitants,  of  whatsoever  national 
strain,  were  strongly  inclined  to  secession  or  revolt 
against  the  older  Eastern  communities.  Never  was  a 
nation  composed  of  more  diverse  ethnic  groups  and 
elements. 

And  the  geographical  environments  of  these  groups 
and  segments  of  older  civilizations  were  quite  as  dis 
similar  as  those  among  which  the  nations  of  Europe 
developed.  The  cold  and  bleak  hills  of  New  England 
no  more  resemble  the  rich  river  bottoms  of  the  South 
than  the  sand  dunes  of  Prussia  resemble  the  fertile 
plains  of  Andalusia.  Geographical  differences  tend 
to  produce  economic  differences.  If  to  these  be  added 
inherited  antagonisms  like  those  of  Puritan  and  Cav 
alier,  one  wonders  how  the  East  and  the  South  of  the 
United  States  ever  became  integral  parts  of  one  great 
social  unit.  Adding  to  this  apparent  impossibility 
the  new  antagonism  of  the  West  toward  the  East  as 
a  whole,  the  historian  wonders  at  the  statecraft  that 
could  hold  the  diverse  elements  together  till  certain 
economic  and  social  factors  became  powerful  enough 
to  conquer  in  a  long  and  bloody  war.  Or  was  it  the 


EDITOR'S   INTRODUCTION  vii 

influence  of  new  inventions,  railways,  and  the  tight 
ening  bonds  of  commerce  that  did  the  work  ? 

Leaving  the  reader  to  answer  this  question  for  him 
self,  it  remains  for  the  Editor  to  set  forth  in  as  few 
words  as  possible  the  method,  the  emphasis,  and  the 
interpretations  of  the  authors  of  these  volumes. 

Professor  Becker  approaches  his  work,  the  discov 
ery  of  the  New  World,  the  rise  of  the  plantations,  the 
slow  growth  of  an  American  culture,  and  finally  the 
Revolution  of  1776,  from  the  standpoint  of  a  student 
of  modern  European  history.  The  infant  colonies  are 
to  him  merely  offshoots  of  ancient  Europe.  Their 
changes  under  the  new  environment,  their  tendency 
to  isolation  and  petty  quarrels  during  the  seventeenth 
and  eighteenth  centuries,  before  the  days  of  steam 
and  electricity,  and  their  defensive  alliance  against 
the  new,  imperialistic  England  of  George  III,  are  the 
special  themes  of  his  study.  But  here,  as  elsewhere 
in  our  cooperative  undertaking,  the  object  has  been  to 
portray  only  those  things  which  seem  to  have  counted 
in  the  final  make-up  of  the  Confederacy  of  1783, 
and  of  the  United  States  of  to-day.  Moreover,  the 
daily  life  of  the  people,  amusements,  manners,  re 
ligious  predilections,  and  the  everyday  occupations 
of  men  and  women  have  been  accorded  some  of  the 
space  which,  from  another  view-point,  might  have 
been  devoted  to  an  account  of  government  and  the 
arguments  of  jurists. 

Thus  Professor  Becker  has  presented  a  true  and 
entertaining  picture  of  the  purposes  of  European 
capitalists  interested  in  the  plantations,  of  the  poor 
people  who  were  packed  off  to  America  to  serve  the 


viii  EDITOR'S   INTRODUCTION 

ends  of  commerce,  and  of  the  energetic  men  of  the 
eighteenth  century  who  slowly  worked  out  for  Eng 
land  the  conquest  of  North  America.  The  reading 
of  chapters  III  and  V  of  the  Beginnings  of  the 
American  People  can  hardly  fail  to  give  one  a  new 
view  of,  and  a  new  interest  in,  colonial  history. 

Nor  has  Professor  Johnson  approached  his  theme, 
Union  and  Democracy,  in  a  different  spirit.  He  is 
neither  a  champion  of  the  wholesome  nationalism 
which  gave  the  Federalists  their  place  in  history  nor 
a  defender  of  the  radical  idealism  which  Professor 
Becker  has  shown  to  be  the  mainspring  of  the  Revo 
lution  of  1776,  and  which  Jefferson  called  to  life 
again  in  his  struggle  to  win  control  of  the  national 
machinery,  1796  to  1800.  In  treating  the  period  1783 
to  1828,  Professor  Johnson  had  the  difficult  task  of 
tracing  the  important  influences  which  culminated 
in  the  Constitution  of  1789,  the  Jeffersonian  revolt 
of  1800,  the  foreign  complications  of  1803  to  1815, 
and  the  so-called  Era  of  Good  Feelings.  Here  again 
the  popular  prejudices,  if  one  desires  so  to  term 
them,  land  speculations,  and  sectional  likes  and  dis 
likes  receive  attention  ;  but  the  formation  of  the  Con 
stitution,  the  organization  of  the  Federal  Govern 
ment,  international  quarrels  about  the  rights  of 
neutral  commerce,  and  finally  the  War  of  1812 
are  naturally  the  main  topics. 

The  chapters  which  treat  of  the  results  of  the 
second  war  with  England,  the  westward  movement, 
and  the  national  awakening,  and  especially  the  one 
which  analyzes  the  problems  which  underlay  the  great 
decisions  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  will  probably 


EDITOR'S    INTRODUCTION  ix 

prove  most  instructive  to  the  reader.  The  author  has 
made  his  narrative  much  clearer  and  the  factors 
which  entered  into  the  political  struggles  of  the  time 
more  intelligible  by  resort  to  many  black-and-white 
maps  ;  for  example,  those  which  show  the  popular  at 
titude  toward  the  Constitution  in  1787-89  and  the 
alignment  of  parties  in  the  contest  of  1800. 

From  1829  to  1865  was  the  stormy  period  of  our 
national  history  —  a  period  in  which  the  nationality 
planned  by  the  "  Fathers  "  was  being  forged  from 
the  discordant  elements  of  East,  South,  and  West,  — 
from  the  economic  interests  of  cotton  and  tobacco 
planters;  of  the  owners  of  the  industrial  plants  of 
the  Middle  States  and  the  East ;  and  of  the  necessi 
ties  of  the  isolated  West  striving  always  for  markets. 
What  made  the  process  so  doubtful  and  so  long  drawn 
out  was  the  unfortunate  fact  that  the  great  industrial 
arid  agricultural  interests  coincided  so  exactly  with 
the  older  social  and  political  antagonisms.  The  lead 
ership  of  the  times  was,  therefore,  sectional  in  a  very 
vital  way  ;  so  much  was  this  the  case  that  the  most  pop 
ular  and  captivating  of  all  the  public  men  of  the  time, 
Henry  Clay,  was  defeated  again  and  again  for  the 
Presidency  because  no  common  understanding  be 
tween  New  England  and  the  South,  or  between  New 
England  and  the  West,  could  be  found. 

Twice  during  the  period  a  permanent  modus 
vivendi  seemed  to  have  been  agreed  upon,  in  the 
Jacksonian  Democracy  of  1828,  and  in  the  Pierce 
organization  of  1852,  combinations  of  South  and 
West  which  rested  on  the  big  plantation  system  with 
slavery  underlying,  and  on  the  small  farmer  vote  of 


x  EDITOR'S   INTRODUCTION 

the  West  charged  always  with  the  potential  revolt 
which  democracy  connotes.  While  these  subjects  re 
ceive  the  careful  attention  of  the  author,  the  "way 
out,"  and  the  national  expansion  of  the  Polk  Admin 
istration,  are  none  the  less  carefully  studied.  But 
aside  from  the  sharp  and  challenging  problems  of 
the  time,  an  earnest  effort  has  been  made  to  describe 
the  cultural  life  of  the  people,  the  pastimes,  the  re 
ligious  revivals,  the  literary  and  artistic  output  of 
the  exuberant  America  of  1830  to  1860.  The  Civil 
War  and  its  attendant  ills  are  compressed  into  rela 
tively  small  space,  though  here,  too,  the  effort  is 
made  to  include  all  that  is  vital. 

In  like  manner  Professor  Paxson  gives  much 
space  to  the  "  interests  "  which  came  to  dominate 
the  country  soon  after  the  cessation  of  hostilities  in 
1865.  The  business  and  the  greater  social  tendencies 
of  the  post-bellum  period  had  become  evident  during 
the  decade  just  preceding  the  war.  For  this  reason, 
the  author  reaches  back  into  the  midst  of  the  con 
flict  to  take  up  the  thread  of  his  narrative.  The 
economic  conditions  and  changes  of  1861  to  1865 
are  therefore  treated  in  connection  with  the  great 
issues  of  the  seventies  and  eighties  —  the  protective 
tariff  and  "  big  business."  The  money  question,  rail 
way  regulation,  corruption  in  public  affairs,  never 
absent  from  our  national  life,  are  the  chief  themes 
of  Professor  Paxson's  book.  But  while  the  motif  of 
the  volume  is  prosperity,  business  success,  and  com 
mercial  expansion,  space  has  been  found  for  sympa 
thetic  accounts  of  the  dominating  personalities  of 
the  time,  —  for  Blaine  and  Cleveland;  for  Bryan, 


EDITOR'S    INTRODUCTION  xi 

Roosevelt,  and  Woodrow  Wilson.  And  as  is  fitting, 
the  leaders  of  the  industrial  and  intellectual  inter 
ests  of  the  time  also  receive  attention. 

Of  closer  personal  and  scholarly  interest  to  Pro 
fessor  Paxson  is  the  subject  of  the  growth  and  devel 
opment  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  States  :  Far- Western 
railway-building,  mining,  cattle-raising,  and  the  estab 
lishment  of  government  agencies  for  the  conservation 
of  the  national  resources.  While  the  older  and  dan 
gerous  sectionalism  seems  to  be  forever  past,  the 
special  interests  of  the  Far  West,  as  shown  in  this 
work,  still  lend  color  to  a  new  sectionalism  which 
sometimes  threatens  the  old  political  party  habits  \ 
witness  the  contest  of  1908-12  and  the  troubles  be 
tween  California  and  Japan.  And  here  Professor 
Paxson  challenges  attention  by  his  treatment  of  the 
results  of  the  Spanish- American  War,  the  imperial 
ism  which  brought  to  the  United  States  the  control 
of  the  Philippines,  and  made  the  isolated  and  some 
what  provincial  country  of  Blaine  and  Cleveland  a 
world-power,  with  interests  in  the  Pacific  and  a  po 
tential  voice  in  the  final  destiny  of  China. 

Such  have  been  the  problems  and  the  aims  of  the 
writers  of  these  four  short  volumes.  In  order  to 
visualize  the  main  topics  discussed,  resort  has  been 
made  to  the  making  of  maps,  simple  drawings  in 
tended  to  show  at  the  different  crises  just  where,  or 
how  important,  were  the  decisive  factors.  This  is  a 
feature  which,  it  is  thought,  will  please  both  lay  and 
professional  readers.  Certainly  the  making  of  these 
maps  was  no  small  part  of  the  work  of  each  author, 
and  in  most  instances  they  are  entirely  original  and 


xii  EDITOR'S   INTRODUCTION 

made  from  data  not  hitherto  used  in  this  way ;  for 
example,  the  drawings  which  show  just  what  sections 
of  the  States  the  various  candidates  for  the  Presi 
dency  "  carried."  The  same  may  be  said  of  those 
which  treat  of  the  cotton,  tobacco,  and  industrial 
areas  of  the  United  States. 

Although  there  may  be  faults  and  errors  in  the 
work,  it  seems  to  the  Editor  that,  on  the  whole,  the 
story  of  the  beginnings,  the  growth,  and  the  pres 
ent  greatness  of  the  country,  as  set  forth  in  these 
volumes,  is  both  interesting  and  suggestive,  that  the 
real  forces  have  been  duly  emphasized,  and  that  at 
many  points  contributions  to  historical  knowledge 
have  been  made. 

WILLIAM  E.  DODD. 


PREFACE 

IN  preparing  this  sketch  of  the  American  colonies, 
I  have  had  friendly  encouragement  and  assistance 
from  a  number  of  men  whose  knowledge  of  the  sub 
ject  as  a  whole,  or  of  certain  aspects  of  it,  is  far 
more  extensive  and  accurate  than  my  own.  I  am 
particularly  indebted  to  my  colleagues  in  the  Univer 
sity  of  Kansas,  Professor  F.  H.  Ilodder  and  Professor 
W.  W.  Davis,  who  have  read  and  criticized  the  manu 
script  chapter  by  chapter.  The  editor  of  the  series 
has  not  only  read  the  manuscript,  but  has  put  me  in 
the  way  of  much  valuable  material  which  I  should 
otherwise  have  missed.  Professor  G.  S.  Ford  and 
Professor  Wallace  Notestein,  of  the  University  of 
Minnesota,  and  Professor  F.  J.  Turner,  of  Harvard 
University,  have  read  portions  of  the  manuscript. 
These  good  friends  have  saved  me  many  minor  errors 
and  some  serious  blunders  ;  and  their  cautions  and 
suggestions  have  often  enabled  me  to  improve  the 
work  in  form  and  arrangement,  and  in  relative 
emphasis. 

CARL  BECKER. 


CONTENTS 

I.  THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  OLD  WORLD  AND  THE 

NEW 1 

II.  THE  PARTITION  OF  THE  NEW  WORLD  ...  30 

III.  THE  ENGLISH  MIGRATION  IN  THE  SEVEN 

TEENTH  CENTURY 65 

IV.  ENGLAND  AND  HER  COLONIES  IN  THE  SEVEN 

TEENTH  AND  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURIES  .   .125 
V.  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH 

CENTURY 161 

VI.   THE  WINNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE  ....  202 

GENERAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY 277 

INDEX i 


MAPS 

Facing 
s  GLOBE,  WITH  MAGELLAN'S  ROUTE  AND 

DEMARCATION  LINE;  DRAWN  1523       .      .  28 

AREAS  SETTLED  BY  1660,  AND  BETWEEN  1660  AND 


134 

GROWTH  OF  ENGLISH  SETTLEMENTS,  1700-1760       .  178 
AREA    OF    GERMAN    SETTLEMENTS  AND    FRONTIER 
LINE  IN  1775       ......  180 

AREA  OF  SETTLEMENT  IN  1774;  BOUNDARY  PRO 
POSED  BY  SPAIN  IN  1782;  BOUNDARY  SECURED 
BY  TREATY  OF  1783;  AND  SETTLEMENTS  WEST 
OF  ALLEGHANIES  IN  1783  ....  .  272 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE 
AMERICAN  PEOPLE 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  AMERICAN 
PEOPLE 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  OLD  WORLD  AND 
THE  NEW 

We  come  in  search  of  Christians  and  spices.      VASCO  DA  GAMA. 

Gold  is  excellent ;  gold  is  treasure,  and  he  that  possesses  it  does  all 
that  he  wishes  to  in  this  world,  and  succeeds  in  helping  souls  into 
paradise. 

CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS. 


CONTACT  with  the  Orient  has  always  been  an  im 
portant  factor  in  the  history  of  Europe.  Centers  of 
civilization  and  of  political  power  have  shifted  with 
every  decisive  change  in  the  relations  of  East  and 
West.  Opposition  between  Greek  and  barbarian  may 
be  regarded  as  the  motif  of  Greek  history,  as  it  is  a 
persistent  refrain  in  Greek  literature.  The  plunder 
of  Asia  made  Rome  an  empire  whose  capital  was  on 
the  Bosphorus  more  centuries  than  it  was  on  the 
Tiber.  Mediaeval  civilization  rose  to  its  height  when 
the  Italian  cities  wrested  from  Constantinople  the 
mastery  of  the  Levantine  trade  ;  and  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  when  the  main  traveled  roads  to  the  Far 
East  shifted  to  the  ocean,  direction  of  European 
affairs  passed  from  Church  and  Empire  to  the  rising 
national  states  on  the  Atlantic. 


2.     .        THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

The  history  of  America  is  inseparable  from  these 
wider  relations.  The  discovery  of  the  New  World 
was  the  direct  result  of  European  interest  in  the  Far 
East,  an  incident  in  the  charting  of  new  highways 
for  the  world's  commerce.  In  the  thirteenth  and 
fourteenth  centuries  Europeans  first  gained  reliable 
knowledge  of  Far  Eastern  countries,  of  the  routes 
by  which  they  might  be  reached,  above  all  of  the 
hoarded  treasure  which  lay  there  awaiting  the  first 
comer.  Columbus,  endeavoring  to  establish  direct 
connections  with  these  countries  for  trade  and  exploi 
tation,  found  America  blocking  the  way.  The  discov 
ery  of  the  New  World  was  but  the  sequel  to  the 
discovery  of  the  Old. 

From  the  ninth  to  the  eleventh  century  the  people 
of  Western  Europe  had  lived  in  comparative  isola 
tion.  With  half  the  heritage  of  the  Roman  Empire 
in  infidel  hands,  the  followers  of  the  Cross  and  of 
the  Crescent  faced  each  other,  like  hostile  armies, 
across  the  sea.  The  temporary  expansion  of  the 
Frankish  Empire  ceased  with  the  life  of  Charle 
magne,  and  under  his  successors  formidable  enemies 
closed  it  in  on  every  hand.  Barbarian  Slav  and  Saxon 
pressed  upon  the  eastern  frontier,  while  the  hated 
Moslem,  from  the  vantage  of  Spain  .and  Africa,  in 
fested  the  Mediterranean  and  threatened  the  Holy 
City.  Even  the  Greek  Empire,  natural  ally  of  Chris 
tendom,  deserted  it,  going  the  way  of  heresy  and 
schism. 

Danger  from  without  was  accompanied  by  disor 
ganization  within.  In  the  tenth  century  the  politi 
cal  edifice  so  painfully  constructed  by  Charlemagne 


THE  OLD  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  3 

was  in  ruins.  The  organization  of  the  Roman  Em 
pire  and  the  Gregorian  ideal  of  a  Catholic  Church, 
now  little  more  than  a  lingering  tradition,  was  re 
placed  by  the  feudal  system.  Seigneurs,  lay  and  eccle 
siastic,  warring  among  themselves  for  the  shadow  of 
power,  had  neither  time  nor  inclination  for  the  ways 
of  peace  or  the  life  of  the  spirit.  Learning  all  but 
disappeared  ;  the  useful  arts  were  little  cultivated ; 
cities  fell  into  decay  and  the  roads  that  bound  them 
together  were  left  in  unrepair  ;  the  life  of  the  time, 
barren  alike  in  hovel  and  castle,  was  supported  by 
the  crude  labor  of  a  servile  class.  To  be  complete 
within  itself,  secure  from  military  attack  and  econom 
ically  self-supporting,  were  the  essential  needs  which 
determined  the  structure  of  the  great  fiefs.  The  upper 
classes  rarely  went  far  afield,  while  the  "  rural  popu 
lation  lived  in  a  sort  of  chrysalis  state,  in  immobility 
and  isolation  within  each  seigneury." 

But  the  feudal  regime,  well  suited  to  a  period  of 
confusion,  could  not  withstand  the  disintegrating 
effects  of  even  the  small  measure  of  peace  and  pros 
perity  which  it  secured.  Increase  in  population  and 
the  necessities  of  life  liberated  those  expansive  social 
forces,  in  politics  and  industry,  in  intellectual  life,  in 
religious  and  emotional  experience,  which  produced 
the  civilization  of  the  later  Middle  Ages  ;  that  won 
derful  thirteenth  century  which  saw  the  rise  of  in 
dustry  and  the  towns,  the  foundation  of  royal  power 
in  alliance  with  a  moneyed  class,  the  revival  of  intel 
lectual  activity  which  created  the  universities  and  the 
scholastic  philosophy,  the  intensification  of  the  reli 
gious  spirit  manifesting  itself  in  such  varied  and  per- 


4  THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

feet  forms,  —  in  the  simple  life  of  a  St.  Francis  or  the 
solemn  splendor  of  a  Gothic  cathedral. 

Of  this  new  and  expanding  life,  the  most  striking 
external  expression  was  embodied  in  the  Crusades. 
Strangely  compounded  of  religious  enthusiasm  and 
political  ambition,  of  the  redeless  spirit  of  the  knight- 
errant  and  the  cool  calculation  of  the  commercial 
bandit,  these  half -military  and  half -migratory  move 
ments  of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries  mark 
the  beginning  of  that  return  of  the  West  upon  the 
East  which  is  so  persistent  a  factor  in  all  modern 
history.  Christendom,  so  long  isolated,  now  first 
broke  the  barriers  that  had  closed  it  in,  and  once 
more  extended  its  frontier  into  western  Asia :  Nor 
man  nobles,  establishing  the  Kingdom  of  Jerusalem 
and  the  Latin  Empire,  enabled  the  Church  to  guard 
the  Holy  Sepulchre,  while  Italian  cities  reaped  a 
rich  harvest  from  the  plunder  of  Constantinople  and 
the  Levantine  trade. 

The  Latin  Empire  and  the  Kingdom  of  Jerusa 
lem  did  not  outlast  the  thirteenth  century,  but  the 
extension  of  commercial  activity  was  a  permanent 
result  of  vital  importance  for  the  relations  of  Orient 
and  Occident.  The  swelling  volume  of  Mediterranean 
trade  which  accompanied  the  crusading  movement 
depended  upon  the  growing  demand  in  the  West  for 
the  products  of  the  East.  Europe  could  provide  the 
necessities  for  a  simple  and  monotonous  life,  without 
adornment  or  display.  But  the  rise  of  a  burgher 
aristocracy,  the  growth  of  an  elaborate  and  symbolic 
ritualism  in  religious  worship,  the  desire  for  that 
pomp  and  display  which  is  half  the  divinity  of  kings, 


THE  OLD  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  5 

created  a  demand  for  commodities  which  only  the 
East  could  supply,  —  spices  for  flavoring  coarse  food, 
"  notemege  to  putte  in  ale,"  fragrant  woods  and  dyes 
and  frankincense,  precious  stones  for  personal  adorn 
ment  or  royal  regalia  or  religious  shrines,  rich  tapes 
tries  for  bare  interiors,  "  cloths  of  silk  and  gold." 

All  these  products,  and  many  more  besides,  so  at 
tractive  to  the  unjaded  mind  of  Europe,  celebrated 
in  chronicle  and  romance  from  the  thirteenth  to  the 
fifteenth  century,  were  to  be  found  in  those  cities  of 
the  Levant  —  in  Constantinople,  in  Antioch  or  Jaffa 
or  Alexandria  —  which  were  the  western  termini  to 
long  established  trade  routes  to  the  Far  East.  Wares 
of  China  and  Japan  and  the  spices  of  the  southern 
Moluccas  were  carried  in  Chinese  or  Malay  junks  to 
Malacca,  and  thence  by  Arab  or  Indian  merchants  to 
Paulicut  or  Calicut  in  southern  India.  To  these  ports 
came  also  ginger,  brazil-wood,  sandal-wood,  and  aloe, 
above  all  the  precious  stones  of  India  and  Persia, 
diamonds  from  Golconda,  rubies,  topaz,  sapphires, 
and  pearls.  From  India,  the  direct  southern  route 
lay  across  the  Indian  Ocean  to  Aden  and  up  the  Red 
Sea  to  Cairo  or  Alexandria.  The  middle  route  fol 
lowed  the  Persian  Gulf  and  the  Tigris  River  to  Bag 
dad,  and  thence  to  the  coast  cities  of  Damascus,  Jaffa, 
Laodicea,  and  Antioch.  And  by  the  overland  north 
ern  route  from  Peking,  by  painful  and  dangerous 
stages  through  Turkestan  to  Yarkand,  Bokhara,  and 
Tabriz  came  the  products  of  China  and  Persia,  — 
silks  and  fabrics,  rich  tapestries  and  priceless  rugs. 

From  the  twelfth  century  Italian  cities  grew  rich 
and  powerful  on  the  carrying  trade  between  western 


6  THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

Europe  and  the  Levant.  Venice  and  Genoa,  Mar 
seilles  and  Barcelona,  whose  merchants  had  perma 
nent  quarters  in  Eastern  cities,  became  the  distribut 
ing  centers  for  western  Europe.  Each  year  until 
1560,  a  Venetian  trading  fleet,  passing  through  the 
Straits  of  Gibraltar,  touching  at  Spanish  and  Portu 
guese  ports,  at  Southampton  or  London,  finally 
reached  the  Netherlands  at  Bruges.  But  the  main 
lines  to  the  north  were  the  river  highways  :  from 
Marseilles  up  the  Rhone  to  Lyons  and  down  the 
Seine  to  Paris  and  Rouen ;  from  Venice  through 
the  passes  of  the  Alps  to  the  great  southern  Ger 
man  cities  of  Augsburg  and  Nuremburg,  and  thence 
northward  along  the  Elbe  to  the  Hanse  towns  of 
Hamburg  or  Lubec ;  or  from  Milan  across  the  St. 
Gothard  to  Basle  and  westward  into  France  at 
Chalons.  The  main  carriers  from  the  North  of  the 
Alps  were  the  merchants  of  South  Germany ;  while 
the  Hanse  merchants,  buying  in  southern  Germany, 
or  in  the  Netherlands  at  Bruges  and  Antwerp,  sold 
in  England  and  France,  in  the  Baltic  cities,  and  as 
far  east  as  Poland  and  Russia. 

II 

Before  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century  no 
Italian  merchant  could  have  told  you  anything  of 
the  "  isles  where  the  spices  grow,"  or  of  the  coun 
tries  which  produced  the  rich  fabrics  in  which  he 
trafficked :  he  knew  only  that  they  came  to  Alex 
andria  or  Damascus  from  Far  Eastern  lands.  For 
from  time  immemorial  the  Orient  had  been  the  en 
emy's  country,  little  known  beyond  the  bounds  of 


THE  OLD  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  7 

Syria,  a  half-mythical  land  of  alien  races,  of  curious 
customs  and  infidel  faiths,  a  land  of  interminable 
distances,  rich  and  populous,  doubtless,  certainly 
dangerous  and  inaccessible.  But  in  the  thirteenth 
century  the  veil  which  had  long  shrouded  Asia  in 
mystery  was  lifted,  discovering  to  European  eyes 
countries  so  rich  in  hoarded  treasure  and  the  prod 
ucts  of  industry  that  the  gems  and  spices  which 
found  their  way  to  the  West  were  seen  to  be  but  the 
refuse  of  their  accumulated  stores. 

The  discovery  of  Asia  in  the  thirteenth  century 
was  the  direct  result  of  the  Mongol  conquest.  Be 
fore  the  death  of  Jenghis  Khan  in  1227,  the  Tartar 
rule  was  established  in  northern  China  or  Cathay, 
and  in  central  Asia  from  India  to  the  Caspian ; 
while  within  half  a  century  the  successors  of  the 
first  emperor  were  dominant  to  the  Euphrates  and 
the  Dniester  on  the  west,  and  as  far  south  as  Delhi, 
Burma,  and  Cochin  China.  The  earlier  conquests 
were  conducted  with  incredible  ferocity ;  but  the  in 
fluence  of  Chinese  civilization  moderated  the  temper 
of  the  later  Khans,  who  exhibited  a  genial  and  con 
descending  curiosity  in  the  people  of  Christendom. 
Diplomatic  relations  were  established  between  Tar 
tar  and  Christian  princes.  In  the  Paris  archives  may 
still  be  seen  letters  written  from  Tabriz  to  the  kings 
of  France  bearing  official  Chinese  seals  of  the  thir 
teenth  century.  For  the  first  time  Europeans  were 
welcome  beyond  the  Great  Wall.  Kublai  Khan  sent 
presents  to  the  Pope  and  requested  Christian  mis 
sionaries  for  the  instruction  of  his  people.  Traders 
and  travelers  were  hospitably  received,  clever  adven- 


8  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

turers  were  taken  into  favor  and  loaded  with  benefits 
and  high  office. 

It  was  in  1271  that  two  prosperous  Italian  mer 
chants,  Maffeo  and  Nicolo  Polo,  at  the  invitation  of 
Kublai  Khan,  left  Venice,  taking  with  them  Nicolo's 
son,  the  young  Marco,  destined  to  be  the  most 
famous  of  medieval  travelers.  Going  out  by  way  of 
the  Tigris  River  to  Hormos,  they  turned  eastward, 
and  after  many  weary  months  journeying  across 
Persia  and  China  arrived  at  the  city  of  Cambulac, 
now  known  as  Peking.  Here  they  remained  for 
twenty  years,  favored  guests  or  honored  servants  at 
the  court  of  the  Grand  Khan.  Henceforth  Maffeo 
and  Nicolo  retire  into  the  background ;  we  catch  oc 
casional  glimpses  of  them,  shrewd  Venetians,  unob 
trusively  putting  money  in  their  purses,  while  the 
young  Marco  occupies  the  center  of  the  stage  as  royal 
favorite,  member  of  the  Privy  Council,  or  trusted 
ambassador  to  every  part  of  the  emperor's  wide  do 
mains.  A  happy  chance  enabled  them  to  return  at 
last ;  and  by  a  route  no  European  had  yet  taken : 
from  Peking  to  Zaiton ;  thence  by  sea  through  the 
famous  Malacca  Straits  to  Ceylon  and  India ;  up  to 
Hormos  and  across  to  Tabriz  and  Trebizond ;  and 
so,  by  way  of  the  Bosphorus,  home  to  Venice,  with 
a  tale  of  experiences  rivaling  the  Arabian  Nights, 
and  a  fortune  stitched  up  in  the  seams  of  their 
clothes. 

The  fortune,  in  "rubies,  sapphires,  carbuncles, 
diamonds,  and  emeralds,"  was  straightway  turned 
out  before  the  admiring  gaze  of  friends  ;  while  the 
story  was  told,  to  friends  and  enemies  alike,  many 


THE  OLD  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  9 

times  over,  and  presently,  in  a  Genoese  prison,  set 
down  in  French  —  The  Book  of  tier  Marco  Polo 
the  Venetian  concerning  the  Kingdoms  and  Marvels 
of  the  East.  It  was  only  one  of  many  books  of  that 
age  describing  the  countries  of  the  Orient,  for  Marco 
Polo  was  only  the  most  famous  of  the  travelers  of 
his  time.  Diplomatic  agents,  such  as  Carpini,  the 
legate  of  Innocent  IV,  or  William  de  Rubruquis,  the 
ambassador  of  St.  Louis ;  missionaries,  such  as  John 
de  Corvino,  Jordanus  de  Severac,  or  Friar  Beatus 
Oderic,  laboring  to  establish  the  faith  in  India  and 
China ;  merchants,  such  as  Pegalotti  and  Schilt- 
berger,  seeking  advantage  in  the  way  of  trade :  — 
these,  and  many  more  besides,  penetrated  into  every 
part  of  Asia  and  recorded  in  letters,  in  dry  and  pre 
cise  merchant  hand-books,  in  naive  and  fascinating 
narrative  accounts,  a  wealth  of  information  about 
this  old  world  now  first  discovered  to  Europeans. 

For  the  revelations  of  the  travelers  amounted  to 
a  discovery  of  Asia.  In  the  age  before  printing  news 
spread  from  mouth  to  mouth.  Reading  had  not  yet 
replaced  conversation,  and  a  narrative  of  events  was 
alike  the  duty  and  the  privilege  of  every  chance  visi 
tor  from  far  or  near.  What  a  celebrity,  then,  was 
the  Asiatic  voyager,  returning  home  after  many 
years !  It  is  said  of  Marco  Polo  that  even  in  Genoa, 
where  he  was  held  a  prisoner,  "  when  his  rare  quali 
ties  and  marvelous  travels  became  known  there,  the 
whole  city  gathered  to  see  him.  At  all  hours  of  the 
day  he  was  visited  by  the  noblest  gentlemen  of 
the  city,  and  was  continually  receiving  presents  of 
every  useful  kind.  Messer  Marco,  finding  himself  in 


10  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

this  position,  and  witnessing  the  general  eagerness 
to  hear  all  about  Cathay  and  the  Grand  Chan,  which 
indeed  compelled  him  daily  to  repeat  his  story  till 
he  was  weary,  was  advised  to  put  the  matter  in  writ 
ing."  And  certainly  those  voluble  Italians  were  not 
men  to  remain  silent.  Thousands,  who  never  read 
the  book  of  Ser  Marco  or  the  charming  narratives 
of  Rubruquis  or  Friar  Oderic,  must  have  heard  many 
of  their  wonderful  stories  as  they  were  carried  by  the 
merchants  and  priests,  students,  minstrels,  and  high 
diplomatic  agents  who  went  up  and  down  the  high- 
Ways  of  Europe  in  the  fourteenth  century. 

And  the  tale  was  marvelous,  indeed,  to  the  unac 
customed  ears  of  Europe,  —  a  tale  of  innumerable 
populous  cities  and  great  rivers,  a  tale  of  industry 
and  thrjft  and  glutted  markets,  above  all  a  tale  of 
treasure.  What  was  doubtless  heard  most  eagerly 
and  told  again  with  most  verve  were  the  accounts  of 
cities  with  "  walles  of  silver  and  bulwarkes  or  towers 
of  golde,"  palaces  "  entirely  roofed  with  fine  gold," 
lakes  full  of  pearls,  of  Indian  princes  wearing  on 
their  arms  "  gold  and  gems  worth  a  city's  ransom." 
In  that  country,  says  Rubruquis,  "whoever  wanteth 
golde,  diggeth  till  he  hath  found  some  quantitie." 
Oderic  tells  of  a  "  most  brave  and  sumptuous  pal- 
lace  "  in  Java,  "  one  stayre  being  of  silver,  and  an 
other  of  golde,  throughout  the  whole  building  "  ;  the 
rooms  were  "  paved  all  over  with  silver  and  gold, 
and  all  the  wals  upon  the  inner  side  sealed  over 
with  plates  of  beaten  gold ;  the  roof  of  the  palace 
was  of  pure  gold."  As  for  the  Grand  Khan,  he  had, 
according  to  Marco  Polo,  "  such  a  quantity  of  plate, 


THE  OLD   WORLD   AND   THE   NEW     11 

and  of  gold  and  silver  in  other  shapes,  as  no  one 
ever  before  saw  or  heard  tell  of,  or  could  believe." 
And  so  freely  did  the  returned  traveler  discourse  of 
Kublai  Khan's  millions  of  saggi  of  revenue,  that  he 
was  ever  after  known  in  Italy  as  Ser  Marco  Milioni. 

In  contrast  with  this  country,  how  small  and  in 
ferior  is  Europe !  Such  is  the  most  general  impres 
sion  conveyed  by  the  accounts  of  the  travelers.  Do 
you  think  you  have  some  powerful  kings  here?  — 
they  have  always  the  air  of  asking  —  some  great 
rivers,  populous  and  thriving  cities  ?  But  I  tell  you 
Europe  is  nothing.  "  The  city  of  Quinsay,"  says 
Oderic,  "  hath  twelve  principall  gates  ;  and  about 
the  distance  of  eight  miles,  on  the  highway  unto  each 
one  of  the  said  gates,  standeth  a  city  as  big  by  esti 
mation  as  Venice  and  Padua."  And  this  trade  of  the 
Levant,  profitable  as  you  think  it,  is  but  a  small  af 
fair.  On  a  single  river  in  China,  the  greatest  in  the 
world,  "  there  is  more  wealth  and  merchandise  than 
on  all  the  rivers  and  all  the  seas  of  Christendom  put 
together."  Of  that  great  wealth,  very  little,  indeed, 
ever  comes  to  the  Levant :  "  for  one  ship  load  of  pep 
per  that  goes  to  Alexandria  or  elsewhere,  destined 
for  Christendom,  there  come  a  hundred,  aye  and 
more  too,  to  this  haven  of  Zaiton"  ;  while  the  dia 
monds  "  that  are  brought  to  our  part  of  the  world 
are  only  the  refuse  of  the  finer  and  larger  stones ; 
for  the  flower  of  the  diamonds,  as  well  as  of  the 
larger  pearls,  are  all  carried  to  the  Grand  Khan  or 
other  princes  of  these  regions  :  in  truth,  they  possess 
all  the  great  treasures  of  the  world." 

What  a  reversal  of  values  for  that  introspective 


12  THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

mind  of  Christendom,  so  long  occupied  with  its  own 
soul !  And  what  an  opportunity,  —  all  the  great 
treasures  of  the  world  possessed  by  people  who  wel 
come  merchants  but  "  hate  to  see  soldiers  ";  being 
themselves  "  no  soldiers  at  all,  only  accomplished 
traders  and  most  skillful  artisans."  Here  was  the 
promised  land  for  Europeans,  wretchedly  poor,  but 
good  soldiers  enough.  Here  was  Eldorado,  symbol  of 
all  external  and  objective  values  which  so  fired  the 
imagination  in  that  age  of  discovery ;  presenting  a 
concrete  and  visualized  goal,  a  summum  bonum, 
attainable,  not  by  contemplation,  but  by  active  en 
deavor  ;  fascinating  alike  to  the  merchant  dreaming 
of  profits,  to  the  statesman  intent  on  conquest,  to  the 
priest  in  search  of  martyrdom,  to  the  adventurer  in 
search  of  gold. 

Ill 

And  who  was  not  in  search  of  gold  ?  "  Gold  is 
excellent ;  gold  is  treasure,  and  he  who  possesses  it 
does  all  that  he  wishes  to  in  this  world,  and  succeeds 
in  helping  souls  into  paradise,"  So  thought  Colum 
bus,  expressing  in  a  phrase  the  motto  of  many  men, 
and  conveniently  revealing  to  us  an  essential  secret 
of  European  history.  For  gold,  so  abundant  in  the 
East,  was  scarce  in  the  West.  The  mines  of  Europe 
have  never  been  adequate  to  the  needs  of  an  expand 
ing  industrial  civilization.  Importation  of  expensive 
Eastern  luxuries,  normally  overbalancing  exports, 
produces  a  drain  of  specie  to  the  Orient,  that  reser 
voir  to  which  the  precious  metals  seem  naturally  to 
flow,  and  from  which  they  do  not  readily  return ;  so 


THE  OLD  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  13 

that  to  maintain  the  gold  supply  and  prevent  a  fatal 
appreciation  of  money  value  has  been  a  serious  prob 
lem  in  both  ancient  and  modern  times.  During  the 
Roman  Republic  the  supply  of  gold  was  maintained 
at  Rome  by  the  systematic  exploitation  of  Syria  and 
Asia  Minor.  But  after  Augustus  reformed  the  gov 
ernment  of  the  provinces,  the  accumulated  treasure 
of  the  West  began  to  return  to  the  Orient :  the  an 
nual  exportation  of  200,000,000  sesterces  in  payment 
for  the  silks  and  spices  of  India  and  Arabia,  of  Syria 
and  Egypt,  was  one  of  the  causes  of  economic  ex 
haustion  and  the  collapse  of  imperial  power.  "  So 
dear,"  says  Pliny,  "  do  pleasures  and  women  cost  us." 
During  the  age  of  feudal  isolation,  this  ever-recur 
ring  problem  did  not  exist ;  and  in  the  twelfth  and 
thirteenth  centuries  it  seems  not  to  have  been  press 
ing.  Imports  from  the  Orient  were  nearly  balanced 
by  exports  to  Syria,  for  which  the  crusading  move 
ments  and  the  Kingdom  of  Jerusalem  created  an  ab 
normal  demand.  The  rise  of  trade  in  the  West  was 
accompanied  by  an  expansion  of  the  credit  system 
centering  in  the  banking  houses  of  Florence ;  while 
the  supply  of  metals  was  more  than  maintained  by 
the  plunder  of  Asiatic  cities,  paid  over  by  crusaders 
in  return  for  supplies  and  munitions  of  war,  or 
brought  home  by  returning  princes  and  nobles,  by 
priests  and  merchants,  by  Knights  of  St.  John  or  of 
the  Temple.  Between  1252  and  1284,  the  ducat  and 
the  florin  and  the  famous  gold  crowns  of  St.  Louis 
made  their  appearance,  —  the  sure  sign  of  an  in 
creased  gold  supply,  rising  prices,  and  flourishing 
trade. 


14  THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

But  in  1291  the  Kingdom  of  Jerusalem  was  over 
thrown  ;  successful  crusading  ceased,  and  the  plun 
der  of  Syrian  cities  was  at  an  end.  Yet  the  volume 
of  Oriental  trade  was  undiminished  ;  normal  exports 
were  insufficient  to  pay  for  imports ;  and  from  the 
end  of  the  thirteenth  to  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth 
century  the  drain  of  precious  metals  from  Europe 
was  followed  by  the  inevitable  appreciation  of  gold. 
Prices  fell ;  many  communes  were  bankrupt ;  kings, 
in  desperate  straits,  debased  the  coinage  and  de 
spoiled  the  Church.  It  was  in  1291  that  Edward  I 
forced  his  "  loan  "  from  the  churches  ;  and  Philip  IV, 
in  1296  forbidding  the  export  of  gold  and  silver 
from  France,  set  about  with  unparalleled  cunning 
and  cruelty  to  destroy  the  Templars  in  order  to  ap 
propriate  the  wealth  which  they  had  accumulated  in 
the  Holy  Land. 

It  was  in  this  very  fourteenth  century,  when  gold 
was  appreciating  and  prices  were  falling,  that  the 
immense  wealth  of  the  Orient  was  first  fully  re 
vealed  to  Europeans.  All  the  commodities  which 
Arab  traders  sold  at  high  prices  to  Venetian  mer 
chants  in  the  Levant  were  now  known  to  be  of  little 
worth  in  the  markets  of  India.  In  that  country,  all 
the  reports  agreed,  "  they  have  every  necessity  of 
life  very  cheap  ";  and  every  luxury  as  well  —  forty 
pounds  of  "  excellent  fresh  ginger  for  a  Venice  groat r'; 
"  three  pheasants  for  an  asper  of  silver  ";  five  grains 
of  silver  buying  one  of  gold  ;  three  dishes,  "  so  fine 
that  you  could  not  imagine  better,"  to  be  had  for  less 
than  half  a  shilling.  It  was  the  Arab  middlemen  that 
made  the  difference :  the  enemies  of  Christendom, 


THE   OLD   WORLD   AND   THE   NEW     15 

intrenched  in  Jerusalem  and  Egypt,  guarded  the 
easy  highways  to  the  East  and  took  rich  toll  of  all 
its  commerce.  What  a  stroke  for  State  and  Church 
if  Europe,  uniting  with  the  Ilkhans  of  Persia,  could 
establish  direct  connections  with  the  Orient,  elimi 
nate  the  infidel  middlemen,  and  divide  with  Mongol 
allies  the  fruits  of  Indian  exploitation ! 

Such  projects,  drifting  from  court  to  court  in  the 
early  fourteenth  century,  form  the  aftermath  of  the 
great  Crusades.  In  1307  Marino  Sanuto,  Venetian 
statesman  and  geographer,  presented  to  Clement  V 
an  elaborate  plan  for  the  revival  of  the  old  conflict 
with  Islam.  But  Sanuto  contemplated  something 
more  than  the  recovery  of  the  Holy  Land.  Sketch 
ing  with  sure  hand  the  trade  routes  from  India  to 
the  Levant,  he  demonstrated  that  the  Arabs  were 
enriched  at  the  expense  of  Christian  Europe.  Yet 
beyond  the  narrow  confines  of  Syria  were  the  Mon 
gols,  well  disposed  toward  Christians,  but  enemies  of 
Mohammedan  Arab  and  Turk.  First  weaken  the  Mos 
lem  powers,  said  Sanuto,  by  an  embargo  on  all  ex 
ports  of  provisions  and  munitions  of  war  to  Syria 
and  Egypt,  and  then  overthrow  them  by  a  combined 
attack  of  Christian  and  Mongol  armies.  The  great 
end  would  thus  be  attained  :  a  Christian  fleet  on  the 
Indian  Ocean,  subjugating  all  the  coast  and  island 
ports  from  India  to  Hormos  and  Aden,  would  act  as 
convoy  for  Italian  merchants  trading  directly  with 
the  Eastern  markets  by  way  of  Alexandria  and  the 
Red  Sea,  or  down  the  Tigris  River  to  the  Persian 
Gulf. 

The  project  of  Sanuto,  anticipating  the  achieve- 


16  THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

ments  of  England  in  our  own  day,  was  doubtless  as 
vain  as  it  was  splendid.  For  the  times,  in  fourteenth- 
century  Europe,  were  out  of  joint.  Clement  V  and 
his  successors  at  Avignon,  scarcely  able  to  hold  the 
Papal  States,  were  little  inclined  to  attempt  the  con 
quest  of  Syria.  The  Empire  had  lost  its  command 
ing  position.  Italian  cities,  released  from  imperial 
control,  warred  perpetually  for  existence  or  suprem 
acy.  England  and  France  were  preparing  for  the 
desolating  struggle  that  exhausted  their  resources 
for  a  hundred  years.  "  All  Christendom  is  sore  de 
cayed  and  feeblished,  whereby  the  Empire  of  Con 
stantinople  leeseth,  and  is  like  to  lese,"  for  lack  of 
the  "Knights  and  Squires  who  were  wont  to  adven 
ture  themselves,"  but  who  adventure  themselves  no 
more. 

In  1386,  when  this  naive  plaint  was  addressed  to 
Richard  II  by  the  dispossessed  King  of  Armenia, 
conditions  in  Asia,  even  more  than  those  in  Europe, 
were  such  as  to  make  the  plans  of  Sanuto  forever 
impossible.  Johan  Schiitberger,  journeying  to  the 
Orient  early  in  the  fifteenth  century,  encountered 
dangers  and  difficulties  unknown  to  Marco  Polo  a 
hundred  years  earlier.  The  successors  of  Kublai 
Khan  no  longer  ruled  in  China ;  while  the  Ilkhans 
of  Persia,  having  long  since  adopted  Mohammedan 
ism,  were  now  as  ill-disposed  as  formerly  they  had 
been  friendly  toward  Christian  states.  Eastern  and 
central  Asia  was  indeed  once  more  closing  to  Eu 
ropeans:  its  rulers  no  longer  sought  alliance  with 
Christian  princes ;  no  longer  requested  the  service 
of  papal  missionaries ;  no  longer  welcomed  traders 


THE  OLD  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  17 

and  travelers.  And  in  the  Levant  itself  ominous 
changes  were  portending  :  the  Ottoman  Turks,  press 
ing  upon  the  Greek  Empire  from  Asia  Minor  and 
the  Balkan  Peninsula,  were  already  well  advanced 
upon  their  career  of  blighting  conquest  which  was 
destined  to  throw  Christendom  upon  the  defensive 
for  more  than  two  centuries.  At  the  opening  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  although  the  trade  routes  had  not 
been  closed  by  the  Turks,  the  Drang  nach  Osten — 
the  hope  of  cutting  through  the  Moslem  barrier  in 
order  to  establish  direct  connection  with  India  — 
was  at  an  end.  Unless  a  new  way  to  the  East  could 
be  found,  the  better  part  of  the  treasure  of  the  Ori 
ent  was  lost  to  Europe. 

IV 

Long  before  the  fifteenth  century  many  men  had 
thought  it  possible  to  reach  India  by  sailing  around 
Africa.  Since  classical  times  geographers  had  both 
asserted  and  denied  the  possibility.  During  the 
Middle  Ages  the  Ptolemaic  theory  was  in  the  ascend 
ant  ;  but  the  observations  of  thirteenth-century  trav 
elers  gave  powerful  support  to  the  ideas  of  Era 
tosthenes.  Europeans  who  had  sailed  from  Malacca 
to  Hormos,  or  had  read  the  book  of  Marco  Polo  or 
Friar  Oderic,  knew  well  that  no  impenetrable  swamp 
guarded  the  southern  approaches  to  Asia ;  while  those 
who  had  seen  or  heard  of  Arab  ships  clearing  from 
Calicut  for  Aden  could  scarcely  avoid  the  inference 
that  a  wider  sweep  to  the  south  might  have  brought 
the  same  ships  to  Lisbon  or  Venice. 

This    inference,  the  alert  and  practical    Italian 


18  THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

intellect,  unhampered  by  scientific  tradition  or  eccle 
siastical  prejudice,  had  unhesitatingly  drawn.  The 
famous  Laurentian  Portolano,  a  sailing  chart  con 
structed  in  1351,  was  precisely  such  a  map  as  Marco 
Polo,  had  he  turned  cartographer,  might  have  drawn  : 
the  first  map  in  which  Africa  appears  familiar  to 
modern  eyes ;  with  the  point  of  the  continent  fore 
shortened,  and  the  Atlantic  and  Indian  Oceans  joined 
at  last,  it  held  out  to  all  future  explorers  the  pros 
pect  of  successful  voyages  from  Venice  to  Ceylon. 
Sixty  years  earlier,  even  before  Polo  returned  from 
China,  the  heroic  attempt  had  been  made ;  Tedisio 
Doria  and  the  Vivaldi,  venturous  Genoese  seamen, 
passing  the  Rock  of  Gibraltar,  pointed  their  galleys 
to  the  south  in  order  "  to  go  by  sea  to  the  ports  of 
India  to  trade  there."  They  never  returned,  nor 
were  ever  heard  of  beyond  Cape  Non  in  Barbary, 
but  the  memory  of  their  hapless  venture  was  per 
petuated  in  legends  of  the  fourteenth  century  which 
credited  them  with  sailing  "  the  sea  of  Ghinoia  to  the 
City  of  Ethiopia." 

To  go  by  sea  to  the  ports  of  India  was  an  under 
taking  not  to  be  achieved  by  unaided  Italian  effort, 
or  in  a  single  generation.  The  skill  and  daring  of 
many  captains  might  find  the  way,  but  discovery 
was  futile  unless  backed  by  conquest,  for  which  the 
support  of  a  powerful  government  was  essential. 
Not  from  Italian  states,  weak  and  distracted  by  inter 
city  wars,  or  absorbed  in  established  and  profitable 
Levantine  trade,  was  such  support  to  come,  but  from 
the  rising  nations  of  the  Atlantic,  which  profited 
least  by  the  established  commercial  system.  Lying 


THE  OLD  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  19 

at  the  extreme  end  of  the  old  trade  routes,  the  mer 
chants  of  France,  England,  Spain,  and  Portugal 
were  mulcted  of  the  major  profits  of  Oriental  trade. 
Here  prices  were  lowest  and  money  most  scarce.  Yet 
the  future  of  these  countries,  consolidated  under  cen 
tralized  monarchies  in  alliance  with  a  moneyed  class, 
depended  upon  a  full  royal  treasury  and  thriving 
industry.  "  The  king,"  said  Cardinal  Morton,  ad 
dressing  the  English  Commons,  "wishes  you  to 
arrest  the  drain  of  money  to  foreign  countries.  The 
king  wishes  to  enrich  you ;  you  would  not  wish  to 
make  him  poor.  Consider  that  the  kingdoms  which 
surround  us  grow  constantly  stronger,  and  that  it 
cannot  be  well  that  the  king  should  find  himself 
with  an  empty  treasury."  To  replenish  the  royal 
treasury  by  enriching  the  bourgeois  class  was  the 
basic  motive  which  enlisted  the  Western  monarchs 
in  maritime  exploration  and  discovery. 

Yet  not  to  the  greater  states  of  the  West  was  re 
served  the  honor  of  first  reaching  the  Indies  by  sea. 
The  Kingdom  of  Portugal,  first  to  venture,  was  first 
to  reach  the  goal.  Looking  out  over  Africa  and  the 
South  Atlantic,  effectively  consolidated  under  King 
John  of  Good  Memory  while  its  neighbors  were  still 
involved  in  foreign  wars  or  the  problems  of  internal 
organization,  the  little  state  enjoyed  advantages 
denied  to  England  before  the  accession  of  Henry 
Tudor,  or  to  Spain  before  the  conquest  of  Granada. 
And  to  these  advantages  the  fates  added  another, 
and  greater.  For  at  an  opportune  moment  it  was 
given  to  Portugal  to  possess  one  of  those  great  souls, 
of  lofty  purpose  and  enduring  resolution,  whose  for- 


20  THE    AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

tune  it  is  to  gather  the  scattered  energies  of  many 
men  and  with  patient  wisdom  direct  them  to  the 
attainment  of  noble  ends.  To  Prince  Henry  the 
Navigator,  who  raised  the  endeavors  of  the  nation 
to  the  level  of  an  epic  achievement,  it  is  chiefly  due 
that  Portugal  became,  in  exploration  and  discovery, 
the  foremost  country  of  the  age. 

In  origin,  the  Portuguese  search  for  India  was  but 
the  sequel  to  the  century-old  conflict  with  the  Moslem, 
a  more  subtly  conceived  crusade.  Losing  their  hold 
on  the  Spanish  Peninsula,  the  Moors  were  still  in 
trenched  in  Africa ;  and  in  1415  a  Portuguese  fleet, 
crossing  to  the  northern  point  opposite  Gibraltar, 
took  and  plundered  the  fortress  and  city  of  Ceuta, 
It  was  on  this  occasion,  and  subsequently  in  1418, 
that  Prince  Henry  gained  from  Moorish  prisoners 
reliable  information  of  the  rich  caravan  trade  from 
the  Senegal  and  Gambia  Rivers,  and  from  the  Gold 
and  Ivory  Coasts  on  the  Gulf  of  Guinea,  to  Timbuc- 
too,  and  across  the  desert  to  Ceuta  and  Tunis  :  in 
formation  which  strengthened,  if  it  did  not  inspire, 
the  guiding  motive  of  his  life.  For  enriching  Por 
tugal  and  undermining  the  Moorish  power  in  Africa, 
how  much  more  effective  than  the  plunder  of  Ceuta 
would  be  the  conquest  of  the  Guinea  Coast !  Once 
round  the  shoulder  of  Africa  and  the  thing  was  done  ! 
And  who  could  say  what  lay  beyond  the  Gulf  of 
Guinea  ?  Prester  John,  perhaps,  or  the  shining  treas 
ures  of  India. 

And  so,  returning  from  Africa  in  1418,  the  Prince 
retired  to  the  famous  Sacred  Promontory  in  the 
Province  of  Algarve,  where  he  gave  the  best  ener- 


THE    OLD   WORLD   AND   THE   NEW     21 

gies  of  forty  years  to  the  task  of  African  explora 
tion.  Backed  by  the  resources  of  the  state,  com 
manding  the  best  scientific  knowledge  of  the  day, 
patiently  enduring  "  what  every  barking  tongue 
could  allege  against  a  Service  so  unservicable  and 
needlesse,"  he  sent  out  year  after  year  the  most 
skillful  and  daring  sailors  of  Italy  and  Portugal, 
and  inspired  them  anew,  as  often  as  they  returned 
baffled  and  discouraged,  with  his  own  perennial  en 
thusiasm.  Between  1435  and  1460,  famous  cap 
tains  in  his  service  —  Gil  Eannes,  Denis  Diaz,  the 
Venetian  Cadamosto  —  made  those  crucial  voyages 
round  the  Point  of  Bojador,  past  the  desert  to  Cape 
Verde,  and  beyond  as  far  as  Sierra  Leone.  After 
1443  the  labors  of  the  Navigator  were  no  longer 
thought  to  be  wasted;  for  when  the  rich  traffic  in 
slaves  and  gold  was  opened  up  to  Portugal,  the 
greed  of  gain  was  added  to  scientific  interest  as  a 
motive  for  exploration  :  —  "  Gold,"  says  the  chron 
icler,  "  made  a  recantation  of  former  Murmurings, 
and  now  Prince  Henry  was  extolled." 

When  Prince  Henry  died  in  1460  no  ship  had 
sailed  beyond  Sierra  Leone;  but  the  nation  had 
caught  the  spirit  of  the  master,  and  in  the  next  gen 
eration  the  search  for  India  replaced  the  explora 
tion  of  the  Gulf  of  Guinea.  Escobar  crossed  the 
Equator  in  1471,  and  fourteen  years  later  Diego 
Cam  sailed  a  thousand  miles  beyond  the  mouth  of 
the  Congo  Kiver.  It  was  in  1486  that  Bartholomew 
Diaz,  third  of  that  family  to  forward  African  ex 
ploration,  left  Lisbon  determined  to  reach  the  In 
dian  Ocean.  Having  passed  the  farthest  point 


22  THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

reached  by  Diego  Cam  the  year  before,  he  put  out 
to  sea  and  ran  before  the  strong  northern  gale  for 
fourteen  days.  Turning  eastward  in  search  of  the 
coast,  and  then  north,  land  was  at  last  sighted  to 
the  west.  The  northerly  trend  of  the  coast,  as  they 
pushed  on  four  hundred  miles  farther,  assured  Diaz 
that  he  was,  indeed,  in  the  Indian  Ocean.  The 
valiant  captain  would  have  gone  on  to  India,  but 
the  crew  forced  him  to  turn  back.  It  was  on  the 
return  voyage  that  he  first  saw  the  southernmost 
point  of  Africa  —  object  of  so  many  notable  ven 
tures  :  the  Tempestuous  Cape,  as  Diaz  would  have 
named  it ;  but  no,  replied  the  king,  may  it  rather 
prove  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope. 

Among  those  for  whom  the  voyage  of  Diaz  was 
of  vital  importance  was  an  unknown  Italian  map- 
maker,  already  possessed  with  the  one  idea  that  was 
to  make  him  more  famous  than  Diaz,  but  which  as 
yet  had  brought  him  only  poverty  and  humiliation. 
Christopher  Columbus,  son  of  a  Genoese  wool- 
comber,  sailor  and  trader  and  student  of  men  and 
of  maps  from  the  age  of  fourteen,  had  come,  about 
the  year  1477,  from  London  to  Lisbon,  where  he 
married  in  1478  Felipe  Moniz  de  Perestrello,  whose 
.father  had  been  a  captain  in  the  service  of  Prince 
Henry  and  first  governor  of  Porto  Santo.  Student 
of  cartography  and  professional  map-maker,  expert 
sailor  himself,  who  had  probably  been  to  the  Gold 
Coast,  associating  with  captains  and  sailors  in  this 
seaport  town  of  Lisbon,  Columbus  must  have  picked 
up  all  the  common  sailors'  gossip  of  the  age,  and 
all  the  best-known  scientific  speculation.  With  the 


THE  OLD  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  23 

Greek  tradition  that  the  Indies  might  be  reached 
by  sailing  west  from  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  he  was 
probably  familiar,  even  if  he  had  not  read  the 
famous  statement  of  Aristotle  in  Roger  Bacon's 
Opus  Majus,  or  in  the  Imago  Mundi  of  Pierre 
d' Ailly ;  familiar  also  he  certainly  was  with  the  per 
sistent  medieval  legends  of  islands  in  the  western 
Atlantic,  —  Atlantis,  and  the  Seven  Cities,  and 
Isles  of  St.  Brandan. 

Here  in  Lisbon,  poring  over  old  maps,  by  for 
tunate  miscalculation  underestimating  the  size  of 
the  earth,  noting,  as  expedition  after  expedition  re 
turned,  the  indefinite  southern  extension  of  the 
African  coast,  Columbus  became  convinced  that  the 
Portuguese  had  chosen  the  longer  route  to  the  East, 
and  that  "  the  Indies  in  the  east  might  in  the 
Earth's  Globositie  be  as  readily  found  out  by  the 
west,  following  the  sun  in  his  daily  journey."  To 
reach  the  Indies  by  sailing  west,  and  to  discover, 
for  the  king  who  should  authorize  him,  such  new 
lands  as  might  fall  his  way,  became  henceforth  the 
consuming  ambition  of  his  life.  It  was  a  project 
which  he  had  already,  about  1484,  laid  before  the 
King  of  Portugal.  Repulsed,  and  at  the  same  time 
betrayed,  he  went  to  Spain,  where  he  was  encour 
aged  by  the  Count  Medina  Celi  and  the  Cardinal 
Mendoza,  only  to  have  his  plan  rejected  by  the 
Council  to  which  it  was  referred.  The  queen  was 
not  unfavorably  disposed,  but  the  Moorish  wars 
occupied  her  days  and  depleted  her  treasury.  Weary 
with  following  the  court  about,  it  must  have  been 
with  profound  discouragement  that  Columbus  heard 


24  THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

of  the  success  of  Diaz  in  1488.  For  the  time  was 
short;  Diaz  had  all  but  reached  the  goal,  and  one 
more  voyage  might  bring  the  Portuguese  to  India 
before  Columbus  could  induce  the  Spanish  sover 
eigns  to  try  the  better  plan. 

But  the  Portuguese  did  not  follow  up  their  ad 
vantage,  and  after  four  more  years  of  waiting,  when 
the  Moorish  wars  were  successfully  concluded  by  the 
conquest  of  Granada,  Columbus  at  last  obtained  a 
favorable  hearing  from  Ferdinand  and  Isabella.  By 
the  King  and  Queen  of  Spain  Christopher  Colum 
bus  was  authorized  to  "  discover  and  acquire  certain 
islands  and  mainland  in  the  ocean";  to  appropriate 
for  himself  a  tithe  of  the  precious  metals  which 
might  be  found  there,  and  to  be  "  Admiral  of  the 
said  islands  and  mainland,  and  Admiral  and  Vice 
roy  and  Governor  therein."  Within  three  months 
all  was  ready,  and  on  Friday.  August  3,  1492,  the 
famous  expedition,  about  ninety  men  in  three  small 
ships,  with  compass  and  astrolabe  for  determining 
direction  and  altitude,  but  no  log  for  the  dead  reck 
oning,  left  Palos  for  the  Canaries.  It  was  not  with 
adverse  winds  or  a  rough  sea  that  the  admiral  had 
to  contend,  but  with  a  superstitious  crew  often 
moved  to  mutiny,  —  terrified  by  the  strange  varia 
tion  of  the  needle,  questioning  whether  the  steady 
trade  winds  that  bore  them  on  would  ever  permit 
them  to  return,  certain  that  the  Sargasso  Sea  would 
prove  that  impenetrable  marsh  of  which  they  had 
heard.  With  unfailing  resourcefulness,  with  patience 
and  tact,  with  the  compelling  force  of  a  masterful 
character,  the  great  commander  vanquished  fear  and 


THE  OLD  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  25 

superstition,  never  doubting  that  since  "  he  had 
come  to  go  to  the  Indies  he  would  keep  on  till  he 
found  them  by  the  help  of  God." 

It  was  on  the  llth  day  of  October,  seventy  days 
out  from  Spain,  and  none  too  soon,  that  land  was 
sighted;  and  on  the  following  morning  Columbus, 
bearing;  the  cross  of  the  Church  on  the  banner  of 

O 

Castile,  set  foot  on  one  of  the  minor  Bahamas,  the 
present  Watling's  Island.  For  two  months  and  a 
half  he  cruised  in  these  waters,  seeking  gold  and 
spices,  and  the  evidence  of  great  cities,  "  still  re 
solved  to  go  to  the  mainland  and  the  City  of  Quiii- 
say,  and  to  deliver  the  letters  of  your  Highness  to 
the  Grand  Can,  requesting  a  reply  and  returning 
with  it."  He  did  not  find  Quinsay  or  the  Grand 
Khan,  but  he  discovered  Santa  Maria,  and  Hayti, 
where  the  first  Spanish  colony  in  the  New  World 
was  established,  and  Cuba,  which  was  taken  to  be 
the  mainland.  Resting  in  this  belief,  the  admiral 
set  out  for  home,  reaching  Palos  February  15, 1493. 
And  it  was  straightway  reported  in  Europe  that  the 
Genoese  captain  had  "found  that  way  never  before 
known  to  the  east." 

The  East,  yet  not  the  desired  part  of  it,  —  not 
Cipango,  or  the  city  of  Quinsay,  nor  yet  the  rich 
Moluccas.  These,  however,  Columbus  never  doubted, 
would  be  easily  found.  Others  were  less  sanguine. 
The  Spanish  sovereigns  seemed  scarcely  convinced 
that  the  islands  of  Columbus  were  parts  of  Marco 
Polo's  Indies  ;  while  King  John  suspected  that  they 
were  really  within  the  southern  Guinea  waters  be 
longing  to  Portugal.  Therefore  the  Portuguese  King 


26  THE   AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

hastened  to  secure,  by  papal  bulls  and  the  Treaty 
of  Tordesillas  with  Spain  in  1494,  the  famous  De 
marcation  Line  which  reserved  to  Portugal,  for  ex 
ploration  and  discovery,  the  regions  lying  east,  and 
to  Spain  the  regions  lying  west,  of  a  meridian  three 
hundred  and  seventy  leagues  west  of  the  Cape  Verde 
Islands.  And  five  years  later,  when  Vasco  da  Gania 
at  last  reached  Calicut  by  the  eastern  route,  no  one 
could  longer  maintain,  so  it  seemed  to  the  Portu 
guese  King,  that  the  Spanish  explorers  were  in  In 
dian  waters.  In  July,  1499,  the  news  of  Da  Gaina's 
success  reached  Lisbon  ;  and  Emanuel,  with  pleas 
ant  malice,  hastened  to  inform  the  Spanish  sover 
eigns  that  the  real  Indies  had  been  visited  "by 
a  nobleman  of  our  household,"  and  that  he  had 
found  there,  what  every  one  expected  to  find,  what 
Columbus  had  nevertheless  not  found,  "  large  cities, 
and  great  populations "  ;  as  evidence  of  which  he 
had  brought  home  "cinnamon,  cloves,  ginger,  nut 
meg,  pepper,  also  many  fine  stones  of  all  sorts ;  so 
that  henceforth  all  Christendom  in  this  part  of 
Europe  shall  be  able,  in  large  measure,  to  provide 
itself  with  these  spices  and  precious  stones." 

The  conclusion  which  the  Portuguese  King  so 
eagerly  accepted  was  meanwhile  confirmed  by  every 
western  voyage.  Beyond  the  islands  which  Columbus 
had  discovered,  an  interminable  barrier  everywhere 
blocked  the  way.  In  1498,  the  admiral  himself  had 
touched  the  mainland  near  Trinidad,  and  in  1502  he 
explored  the  Bay  of  Honduras.  Hojeda  and  Pinzon, 
in  1499  and  1500,  sailed  along  nearly  the  whole 
northern  coast  of  South  America,  while  in  1501 


THE  OLD  WORLD  AND  THE  NEW  27 

Americus  Vespucci  followed  the  eastern  coast  from 
the  point  of  Brazil  as  far  as  35°  south  latitude.  It 
could  no  longer  be  doubted,  by  those  at  least  who 
had  seen  the  great  mouths  of  the  Amazon  and  the 
Plate  Rivers,  that  behind  this  long  stretch  of  coast 
lay  an  immense  continent ;  a  projection  of  Asia, 
doubless,  separated  from  it  by  some  narrow  strait, 
perhaps,  or  possibly  by  an  unknown  sea  :  at  any  rate, 
a  "  boundless  land  to  the  south,"  as  Columbus  re 
ported  ;  and  which  "  may  be  called  a  new  world, 
since  our  ancestors  had  no  knowledge  of  it,"  as  Ves 
pucci  thought ;  "  a  fourth  part  of  the  world,"  said 
Waldseemiiller  in  his  Introductioji  to  Cosmography, 
published  in  1507,  "  which  since  Americus  discov 
ered  it  may  be  called  Amerige  —  i.e.,  Americ's  land 
or  America."  In  1506  Bartholomew  Columbus  pre 
pared  the  earliest  extant  map  showing  this  Mondo 
Novo,  represented  as  a  projection  of  southern  Asia 
and  extending  three  fourths  of  the  distance  to  the 
shoulder  of  Africa. 

This  new  world  of  America,  a  seemingly  impene 
trable  barrier,  lay  between  Spain  and  the  Indies  — 
the  real  Indies  from  which  the  Portuguese  were 
yearly  bringing  home  a  rich  freightage  of  gems  and 
spices.  In  1509  their  ships  first  reached  Malacca ; 
two  years  later  that  "  golden  Chersonese  "  was  taken 
by  Albuquerque ;  and  in  1512  D'Abreu  returned 
with  the  first  cargo  of  cloves  from  Amboina  and 
Banda,  the  very  "  isles  where  the  spices  grow."  To 
find  a  passage  through  the  Mondo  Novo,  which 
Columbus  had  discovered,  became  therefore  the  aim 
of  future  Spanish  exploration  —  inspiring  the  sec- 


28  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

ond  voyage  of  Pinzon  in  1508,  the  expedition  of 
Balboa  across  the  Isthmus  in  1513,  the  fatal  last 
cruise  of  Solis  to  the  mouth  of  the  Plate  River,  and 
the  final  triumphant  venture  of  Ferdinand  Ma 
gellan. 

For  the  world  was  not  so  large  but  that  the  spice 
islands,  three  thousand  miles  east  of  Calicut,  must  be 
in  Spanish  waters.  Firm  in  this  belief,  the  Portu 
guese  Fernam  Magalhaes,  who  had  been  with  Albu 
querque  at  Malacca,  offered  to  King  Charles  of 
Spain  his  services  in  search  of  the  western  passage. 
It  was  in  1519  that  this  man,  "small  in  stature,  who 
did  not  appear  in  himself  to  be  much,"  yet  withal  a 
"  man  of  courage  and  valiant  in  his  thoughts,"  set 
out  in  five  worn-out  ships,  manned  by  Spanish  offi 
cers  and  a  treacherous  crew,  to  achieve  the  greatest 
feat  of  navigation  ever  recorded  in  the  world's  an 
nals.  Undaunted  by  an  almost  fatal  mutiny  or  the  ter 
rors  of  an  Antarctic  winter,  he  pushed  on  through 
the  dangerous  straits  which  bear  his  name,  north 
and  west  over  that  sea  which,  pacific  as  it  was  found 
to  be,  he  would  scarcely  have  attempted  had  he 
known  its  vast  extent.  Sailing  on  month  after  month, 
the  crew  depleted  by  sickness  and  death,  living  at 
last  on  rats  and  biscuit  worms  and  roasted  soaked 
leather  thongs,  the  little  expedition  finally  reached 
the  Philippine  Islands.  Here  the  heroic  commander 
lost  his  life ;  and  but  few  of  those  who  left  Spain 
ever  returned.  One  ship  only  out  of  five,  the  Vic 
toria,  crossed  the  Indian  Ocean  and  at  last,  Septem 
ber  7,  1522,  three  years  out  from  Spain,  sailed  with 
eighteen  survivors  into  the  port  of  St.  Lucar. 


THE  OLD   WORLD  AND  THE  NEW    29 

For  the  first  time  a  single  ship  had  circled  the 
round  earth.  And  through  all  the  vicissitudes  of 
that  notable  voyage,  the  object  which  during  fifty 
years  had  inspired  so  many  fruitless  ventures  was 
not  forgotten.  The  little  Victoria  had  shipped  at 
Moluccas,  and  now  deposited  at  St.  Lucar,  twenty- 
six  tons  of  cloves.  Yet  few  ships  would  ever  again, 
in  the  way  of  trade,  sail  west  from  Spain  for  the 
spice  islands ;  for  between  the  Indies  of  Columbus 
and  the  Indies  which  he  had  hoped  to  find  lay  an 
uncharted  and  boundless  ocean  which  reduced  the 
Atlantic  to  the  measure  of  familiar  inland  waters; 
and  between  the  two  seas,  dimly  perceived  as  yet, 
stretched  the  continent  which  was  indeed  a  Mondo 
Novo  —  the  New  World  of  America. 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

An  excellent  brief  .account  of  the  discovery  of  America  is  in 
Channing's  History  of  the  United  States,  i,  chs.  i-n.  For  ,the  rela 
tions  of  Europe  and  Asia,  and  the  Portuguese  explorations,  see 
Cheyney's  European  Background  of  American  History,  chs.  i,  n, 
iv.  An  excellent  brief  sketch  of  the  life  of  Columbus  is  in  Ency. 
Brit.,  Hth  ed.  Marco  Polo  is  most  conveniently  found  in  Every 
man's  Library  (Dutton).  The  standard  edition  is  that  of  Henry 
Yule,  2  vols.,  London,  1903.  Azurara's  Chronicle  of  the  Discovery 
and  Conquest  of  Guinea  is  printed  by  the  Hakluyt  Society,  2  vols., 
London,  1896.  Chapter  vii  gives  five  reasons  for  Prince  Henry's 
interest  in  African  exploration.  In  recent  years  Henry  Vignaud 
has  maintained  with  much  learning  and  critical  ability  that  the 
famous  Toscanelli  letter  is  a  forgery,  and  that  Columbus's  first 
voyage  to  the  west  was  for  the  purpose  of  discovering  new  coun 
tries,  but  that  he  had  no  intention  of  reaching  the  Indies.  The  first 
point  he  has  probably  established,  but  as  much  cannot  be  said  for 
the  second.  See  Vignaud,  Toscanelli  and  Columbus.  Dutton, 
New  York,  1902. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE    PARTITION    OF    THE    NEW    WORLD 

The  time  approacheth  and  now  zs,  that  we  of  England  may  share 
and  part  stakes,  both  with  the  Spaniard  and  the  Portingale,  in  part  of 
America  and  other  regions  yet  undiscovered. 

RICHARD  HAKXUYT. 


No  feeling  of  exultation  accompanied  the  dis 
covery  of  America.  The  Portuguese  alone  were  well 
content  to  see  rising  on  the  western  horizon  a  new 
continent  blocking  the  way  to  India.  It  was  more  than 
thirty  years  before  the  Spanish  explorers  found  the 
rich  cities  which  Columbus  sought  ;  and  a  century 
after  the  voyage  of  Magellan  the  vain  hope  of  reach 
ing  the  South  Sea  by  some  middle  or  northwest  pas 
sage  still  inspired  the  activities  of  French  and  Eng 
lish  adventurers.  In  1534  Verrazano,  in  the  service  of 
Francis  I,  skirted  the  coast  from  Cape  Fear  to  Sandy 
Hook  seeking  the  way  to  China.  Fifty  years  later 
Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert's  Discourse  of  a  North  West 
Passage  led  to  the  voyages  of  Frobisher  and  Davis. 
Undismayed  by  their  failures,  the  excellent  Hakluyt 
assured  the  queen  in  1584  that  the  passage  to  "  Ca- 
thaio  may  easily,  quickly,  and  perfectly  be  searched 
oute  as  well  by  river  and  overlande  as  by  sea."  And 
as  late  as  1669,  when  Virginia  had  been  settled  for 
half  a  century,  Sir  William  Berkeley  still  had  faith 
"to  make  an  essay  to  doe  his  Majestic  a  memorable 


PARTITION  OF  THE  NEW  WORLD    31 

service,  which  was  to  goe  to  find  out  the  East  India 
Sea." 

Yet  before  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century 
America  took  on  a  value  of  its  own,  and  ceased  to  be 
regarded  as  a  mere  obstacle  in  the  path  of  trade.  Af 
ter  the  conquest  of  Mexico  and  Peru,  the  New  World, 
found  to  be  rich  in  silver  and  gold,  was  thought  to 
be  a  new  Indies  indeed.  To  the  idealizing  mind  of 
the  age  America  already  spelled  opportunity ;  and  in 
the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  the  maritime 
states  of  Europe  established  their  spheres  of  influ 
ence  there  —  still  seeking,  through  its  trackless  for 
ests,  a  waterway  to  the  South  Sea,  still  seeking  gold, 
falling  back  at  last  upon  the  prosaic  business  of  col 
onization  and  the  exploitation  of  its  less  attractive 
resources.  The  Spaniards  found  no  lack  of  treasure, 
but  in  North  America  gold  ever  turned  to  ashes,  and 
the  great  South  Sea  receded  like  a  mirage  before 
every  advance.  Yet  the  failure  of  many  voyages  to 
the  frozen  North,  and  of  many  inland  expeditions 
ending  in  disaster  and  death,  could  not  quench  the 
optimism  which  the  gentlemen  adventurers  caught 
from  the  men  of  the  Renaissance  and  bequeathed  to 
the  colonist,  and  which  for  two  hundred  years  the 
frontiersman  has  preserved  as  a  priceless  heritage  of 
the  New  World. 

When  Columbus  returned  from  his  first  voyage  of 
discovery  in  1493,  he  brought  home  some  gold  trink 
ets  which  the  Indians  had  readily  exchanged  for  glass 
beads.  The  transaction  is  symbolical  of  two  centuries 
of  South  American  history.  The  achievements  of  the 
Conquistadores  have  scarcely  a  parallel  in  the  annals 


32  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

of  conquest ;  but  it  was  the  desire  for  treasure  that 
led  them  on ;  and  the  treasure  they  discovered  be 
came  the  foundation  of  the  Spanish  Empire.  In  ex 
change  for  their  gold  and  silver,  Spain  imposed  upon 
the  native  races  of  America  an  enlightened  despot 
ism  and  the  benefits  of  Christian  civilization. 

From  Hispaniola  as  the  first  center,  the  Spaniards 
soon  extended  their  dominion  over  the  islands  of 
Cuba,  Porto  Rico,  and  San  Domingo,  and  to  the 
mainland  of  North  America.  Seeking  gold  and  the 
fountain  of  perpetual  youth,  Ponce  de  Leon  explored 
Florida  in  1513,  and  in  1521  and  1525  Allyon  and 
Gomez  skirted  the  eastern  coast  as  far  north  as  Lab 
rador.  They  found  no  fountain  of  youth,  nor  any 
passage  to  the  South  Sea,  nor  treasure.  It  was  twenty- 
five  years  after  Columbus's  first  voyage,  when  Velas 
quez  reached  Cozumel  off  the  coast  of  Yucatan,  that 
the  Spanish  explorers  first  encountered  a  people  ad 
vanced  beyond  savagery,  and  came  upon  evidences 
of  that  wealth  which  determined  the  future  of  their 
empire.  Two  years  later  Hernando  Cortez,  the  great 
est  of  the  Conquistadores,  was  given  command  of  the 
expedition  which  ended  in  the  capture  of  Mexico  and 
the  overthrow  of  the  Aztec  power.  The  simple  Mexi 
cans,  who  had  never  seen  a  white  man,  first  welcomed 
Cortez  as  the  long  expected  Culture  God,  and  the 
hapless  Montezuma  gathered  as  a  present  for  the  in 
vader  treasure  equal  in  present  value  to  the  sum  of 
six  and  a  half  million  dollars.  Most  of  this  was  lost 
in  the  lake  during  the  fatal  retreat  from  the  city ; 
but  when  the  conqueror  returned  to  Spain  in  1528, 
he  brought  with  him,  to  that  very  port  of  Palos  where 


PARTITION  OF  THE   NEW   WORLD    33 

Columbus  had  landed  in  1493,  three  hundred  thou 
sand  pesos  x  of  gold  and  fifteen  hundred  marks  of 
silver. 

The  silver  mines  of  Mexico  were  not  exploited  until 
many  years  later,  but  the  conquest  gave  an  immense 
impetus  to  further  exploration.  It  was  the  hope  of 
rivaling  the  brilliant  success  of  Cortez  that  inspired 
those  fruitless  expeditions  through  what  is  now  the 
southern  part  of  the  United  States.  Cabeza  de  Vaca 
and  three  companions,  sole  survivors  of  Narvaez's  ill- 
fated  expedition  to  conquer  an  empire  in  Florida, 
wandered  for  many  years  over  the  country  between 
the  Mississippi  and  the  Gulf  of  California.  Picked  up 
in  1536  by  Spanish  slavers,  De  Vaca's  report  of  the 
vast  country  to  the  north  induced  Mendoza,  the  Gov 
ernor  of  New  Spain,  to  send  out  Friar  Marcos  from 
Mexico  in  1539  to  find  the  famous  Seven  Cities. 
The  friar  found  no  cities,  but  during  the  next  three 
years  the  search  was  continued  by  Coronado,  who 
penetrated  as  far  north  as  the  present  State  of  Kan 
sas.  It  was  also  in  1539  that  De  Soto,  who  had  ac 
companied  Pizarro  in  the  conquest  of  the  Incas  cities, 
set  out  from  Florida  in  search  of  another  Peru.  After 
three  years  of  untold  hardship  he  died  of  swamp  fever 
in  the  region  of  the  great  river  which  he  discovered 
and  in  which  he  lies  buried.  The  only  result  of  all 
these  expeditions  was  to  establish  the  claims  of  Spain 
to  an  immense  territory ;  and  it  was  not  until  15G5 
that  the  Spaniards  founded,  at  St.  Augustine  in 
Florida,  the  first  permanent  European  settlement 
north  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

1  Pesos  :=  approximately  $3.00. 


34  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

"  To  the  south,  to  the  South,"  cried  Peter  Martyr, 
"  for  the  riches  of  the  Aequinoctiall  they  that  seek 
riches  must  go,  not  into  the  cold  and  frozen  north. " 
It  was  a  judgment  justified  in  the  event.  Francisco 
Pizarro,  having  verified  the  report  of  rich  kingdoms 
to  the  south,  received  in  1528  from  the  Emperor 
Charles  V  a  commission  to  conquer  the  country  of 
the  Incas  in  Peru.  With  reckless  daring  equaled 
only  by  cunning  treachery  and  unspeakable  cruelty, 
the  little  band  of  adventurers  that  followed  Pizarro 
made  its  way  to  the  city  of  Cuzaco.  The  Incas  were 
more  civilized  than  the  Aztecs,  their  defense  less 
resolute,  their  wealth  more  abounding.  The  ransom 
of  Atahucellpa  an,d  the  plunder  of  the  capital,  when 
melted  down  into  ingots,  measured  nearly  two  mil 
lion  pesos  of  gold.  And  to  the  south  of  the  capital 
city  were  the  inexhaustible  silver  deposits  of  the 
Andes.  In  1545  the  Government  registered  the  mines 
of  Potosi,  the  main  source  of  the  treasure  which, 
flowing  in  ever-increasing  volume  into  Spain,  so 
profoundly  influenced  the  history  of  Europe  and 
America. 

It  is  said  of  the  Emperor  Charles  V  that  his  eyes 
"  sparkled  with  delight "  when  he  gazed  upon  the 
vases  and  ornaments  wrought  in  solid  gold  which 
Hernando  Pizarro,  returning  from  Peru  in  1534  with 
the  royal  fifth  of  the  first  fruits  of  plunder,  displayed 
before  him.  Yet  the  profit  and  the  burden  of  the  em 
pire  which  Charles  established  in  America  fell  mainly 
to  his  son,  Philip  II.  And  a  great  revenue  was  as 
essential  to  Philip  as  to  Charles ;  for,  although  he 
did  not  succeed  to  the  imperial  title,  he  aspired  no 


PARTITION  OF  THE  NEW  WORLD    35 

less  than  his  father  to  the  mastery  of  Europe.  Cir 
cumstances  seemed  not  unfavorable.  Writh  the  close 
of  the  Council  of  Trent  in  1563,  the  policy  of  con 
ciliation  was  at  an  end,  the  Jesuits  were  in  the  as 
cendant,  and  the  forces  of  the  Counter-Reformation 
were  prepared  to  do  battle  with  the  heresies  that  dis 
rupted  Christendom.  In  this  death  struggle  the  King 
of  Spain  was  well  suited  to  be  the  leader  of  Catholi 
cism.  Crafty  in  method  and  persistent  in  purpose, 
sincerely  devout,  unwavering  in  his  loyalty  to  the 
true  faith,  never  doubting  that  God  in  his  wisdom 
had  singled  him  out  as  the  champion  of  the  Church, 
Philip  identified  his  will  with  truth  and  saw  in  the 
extension  of  Spanish  power  the  only  hope  for  a  res 
toration  of  European  unity  and  the  preservation  of 
Christian  civilization.  To  set  his  house  in  order  by 
extirpating  heresy  and  crushing  political  opposition 
was  but  the  prelude  to  the  triumph  of  Church  and 
State  in  Europe.  Germany  and  France  were  rent  by 
dissension  and  civil  war.  England  was  scarcely  to 
be  feared ;  without  an  effective  army  or  navy,  half 
Catholic  still,  governed  by  a  frivolous  and  bastard 
queen  whose  title  to  the  throne  was  denied  by  half 
her  subjects,  the  little  island  kingdom  could  by  skill 
ful  diplomacy  be  restored  to  the  true  faith  or  by  force 
of_arms  be  added  to  the  Empire  of  Spain. 

For  an  ambition  so  inclusive,  the  American  rev 
enue  was  essential  indeed.  And  in  the  second  half 
of  the  century  it  reached  a  substantial  figure.  The 
yearly  output  of  the  mines  rose  to  about  eleven  mil 
lion  pesos  per  annum,  and  the  amount  which  the  king 
received  for  his  share,  between  the  years  1560  and 


36  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

1600,  was  probably  on  an  average  not  far  from  one 
and  three  quarters  millions,  while  at  the  same  time 
other  sources  of  revenue  from  America  became  of 
considerable  importance.  It  was  a  goodly  sum  for 
those  days,  but  it  was  not  enough  for  the  king's 
needs.  When  Charles  abdicated,  the  imperial  treas 
ury  was  indebted  in  the  sum  of  ten  millions  sterling  ; 
and  much  of  the  bullion  which  was  carried  by  the 
treasure  fleets  that  plied  regularly  between  Porto 
Bello  and  Cadiz  was  pledged  to  German  or  Genoese 
bankers  before  it  arrived,  while  some  of  it  found  its 
way  into  the  pockets  of  corrupt  officials.  What  re 
mained  for  the  king,  together  with  the  last  farthing 
that  could  be  wrung  from  his  Spanish  and  Italian 
subjects,  was  still  inadequate  to  his  far-reaching  de 
signs  ;  and  Philip  II,  reputed  the  richest  sovereign 
in  Christendom,  was  often  on  the  verge  of  bank 
ruptcy. 

It  was  a  disconcerting  fact,  indeed,  that  although 
Spain  and  Portugal  had  divided  the  world  between 
them,  the  thrifty  Dutch  seemed  to  reap  the  major 
profits  of  their  discoveries.  Within  half  a  century 
Antwerp  had  risen  to  be  the  chief  entrepot  and 
financial  clearing-house  of  western  Europe.  English 
wool  was  marketed  there,  and  there  English  loans 
were  floated.  There  Portuguese  spice  cargoes,  pur 
chased  while  still  at  sea,  were  brought  to  be  ex 
changed  at  high  prices  for  the  gold  and  silver  that 
found  its  way  into  the  hands  of  Spain's  creditors  in 
Germany,  Italy,  and  France.  A  wealthy  people  were 
these  Dutch  subjects  of  Philip  II ;  subjects,  yet  half 
free,  escaping  his  control.  It  was  intolerable  that  the 


PARTITION  OF  THE  NEW  WORLD    37 

Netherlands,  infested  with  heresy,  drawing  their 
wealth  from  the  enemies  of  Spain,  and  from  Spain 
itself,  should  not  contribute  their  share  to  the  serv 
ice  of  the  empire. 

To  control  the  Netherlands  and  to  divert  the  prof 
its  of  Dutch  trade  into  the  Spanish  treasury  was 
thus  an  essential  part  of  Philip's  policy.  When  the 
Duke  of  Alva  left  for  Brussels  in  1567  he  promised 
to  make  the  Netherlands  self-supporting  and  to  ex 
tort  from  them  an  annual  revenue  of  two  million 
ducats.  But  the  methods  of  Alva  were  destined  to 
failure.  He  was  a  better  master  of  war  than  of  fi 
nance,  and  by  ruining  Dutch  trade  he  killed  the 
goose  that  laid  the  golden  egg.  The  Southern  Neth 
erlands  were  finally  conciliated  by  a  more  skillful 
policy  than  any  known  to  Alva ;  but  the  city  of  Ant 
werp  never  recovered  from  the  ruin  which  Philip's 
unpaid  soldiers  inflicted  upon  it  in  1576,  and  when 
the  war  was  over,  the  commercial  and  industrial  ac 
tivities  which  had  made  it  prosperous  were  to  be  found 
in  Amsterdam  in  the  independent  Netherlands,  and 
in  London  across  the  Channel. 

Yet  if  the  Netherlands  escaped  the  direct  control 
of  Philip,  their  wealth  might  be  appropriated  at  its 
source.  The  Portuguese  were  still  intrenched  in  the 
East,  and  Dutch  prosperity  was  in  no  small  part 
founded  on  privileges  granted  at  Lisbon.  Philip's 
opportunity  came  in  1580  when  a  disputed  succes 
sion  to  the  throne  opened  the  way  to  intervention 
and  the  rapid  conquest  of  Portugal.  At  a  stroke 
the  Portuguese  dominions  in  Africa  and  the  East 
Indies  were  added  to  Spain's  American  possessions. 


38  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

Throughout  Europe  Philip  was  thought  to  have 
played  a  winning  card  ;  for  the  most  desired  sources 
of  the  world's  wealth  were  at  the  disposal  of  the 
Catholic  king  if  he  could  but  police  the  sea.  But  so 
complete  a  monopoly  was  not  to  be  endured  by  his 
rivals ;  and  France,  Holland,  and  England,  as  a  nec 
essary  prelude  to  their  colonizing  activities  in  the 
New  World  and  in  the  Old,  gathered  their  forces  to 
dispute  the  maritime  supremacy  of  Spain. 

II 

It  was  well  understood  that  the  power  of  Philip 
II  depended  upon  his  American  treasure,  and  his 
treasure  upon  his  control  of  the  sea.  "  The  Emperor 
can  carry  on  war  against  me  only  by  means  of  the 
riches  which  he  draws  from  the  West  Indies,"  cried 
Francis  I  when  Verrazano  brought  home  some  treas 
ure  taken  from  Spanish  ships  in  Western  waters. 
And  Francis  Bacon  expressed  the  belief  of  the  age 
when  he  wrote  that  "  money  is  the  principal  part  of 
the  greatness  of  Spain ;  for  by  that  they  maintain 
their  veteran  army.  But  in  this  part,  of  all  others, 
is  most  to  be  considered  the  ticklish  and  brittle  state 
of  the  greatness  of  Spain.  Their  greatness  consisteth 
in  their  treasure,  their  treasure  in  the  Indies,  and 
their  Indies  (if  it  be  well  weighed)  are  indeed  but 
an  accession  to  such  as  are  masters  of  the  sea." 

It  was  not  for  France  to  contest  the  maritime  su 
premacy  of  Spain  in  the  sixteenth  century.  The  wars 
of  Francis  I  and  Charles  V  bred  a  swarm  of  corsairs 
who  harassed  Spanish  trade  and  penetrated  even  to 
the  West  Indies ;  but  before  1559  the  resources  of 


PARTITION  OF  THE  NEW  WORLD    39 

the  French  Government  were  mainly  devoted  to  re 
sisting  the  Hapsburgs  in  Europe,  and  after  1563 
the  country  was  distracted  by  civil  war.  The  Medi 
terranean  proved,  indeed,  an  attractive  field  for 
French  commercial  expansion.  The  common  enmity 
of  French  and  Turk  toward  the  Hapsburg  found  ex 
pression  in  the  commercial  treaty  of  1536  between 
Solyman  and  Francis  I,  and  in  the  following  half- 
century  the  "  political  and  commercial  influence  of 
France  became  predominant  in  the  Moslem  states." 
But  in  Western  waters  the  activity  of  France  was 
slight.  Without  the  naval  strength  to  resist  Spain, 
she  could  not  afford  to  offend  Portugal,  who  was 
her  effective  ally.  Francis  I  interdicted  expeditions 
to  Brazil  because  the  Portuguese  King  protested,  and 
Coligny's  Huguenot  colony  in  Florida  was  destroyed 
by  the  Spaniard  Menendez  in  1565.  Breton  fisher 
men  plied  their  trade  off  the  Grand  Banks ;  but  in 
this  century  the  only  French  expedition  having  per 
manent  results  for  colonization  was  undertaken  in 
1534  and  1535  by  Jacques  Cartier,  who  sailed  up 
the  St.  Lawrence  as  far  as  Montreal,  and  in  the 
name  of  Francis  I  took  possession  of  the  country 
which  was  to  be  known  as  New  France. 

The  Dutch  did  yeoman  service  against  the  navy 
of  Philip  during  the  war  of  independence,  but  the 
task  of  breaking  the  maritime  power  of  Spain  fell 
mainly  to  England  in  the  age  of  Elizabeth.  Cabot's 
notable  voyage  was  without  immediate  result.  Nei 
ther  the  frugal  Henry  VII,  who  gave  "X10  to  him 
that  found  the  new  isle,"  nor  his  extravagant  son, 
who  was  engaged  in  separating  England  from  Rome 


40  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

and  in  enriching  the  treasury  with  the  spoils  of  the 
monasteries,  coveted  the  colonies  of  Spain  or  greatly 
feared  her  power  in  Europe.  But  Elizabeth,  seated 
on  the  throne  by  precarious  tenure,  confronted  at 
home  and  abroad  by  the  rising  fanaticism  of  the 
Catholic  reaction,  found  the  ambition  of  Philip  a 
menace  to  national  independence.  And  she  knew 
well  that  Spain  must  be  met  in  the  Netherlands  and 
on  the  sea.  Yet  the  task  which  confronted  her  was 
one  for  which  the  naval  resources  of  the  state  were 
inadequate,  and  the  politic  and  popular  queen  turned 
to  the  nation  for  assistance  in  the  hour  of  nteed. 

And  not  in  vain !  For  year  by  year  the  national 
opposition  to  Spain  gathered  force.  Products  seek 
ing  markets  and  capital  seeking  investment  were  in 
creasing,  while  opportunities  for  profit  abroad  were 
diminishing.  Merchant  and  capitalist  were  every 
where  confronted  by  the  monopoly  of  Spain  and 
Portugal,  and  thus  the  maritime  and  commercial 
supremacy  of  the  queen's  chief  enemy  was  at  once  a 
national  menace  and  a  private  grievance.  English 
Protestants,  driven  into  exile  in  the  days  of  "  Bloody 
Mary,"  returned  in  the  time  of  Elizabeth,  bringing 
back  the  spirit  of  Geneva,  and  imbued  with  an  un 
compromising  hatred  of  Papists  which  was  fanned  to 
white  heat  by  the  Jesuit  plots,  supposed  to  be  inspired 
by  Philip  himself,  against  the  queen's  life.  The  rising 
opposition  to  Spain  thus  took  on  the  character  of  a 
crusade :  for  statesmen  it  was  a  question  of  independ 
ence  ;  for  merchants  a  question  of  profits  ;  for  the 
people  a  question  of  religion.  And  so  it  happened 
that  in  time  of  peace  the  ships  of  Spain  were  re- 


PARTITION  OF  THE  NEW  WORLD    41 

garded  as  fair  prize.  When  piracy  wore  the  cloak 
of  virtue  there  were  many  to  venture  ;  and  the  queen 
was  ready  to  reward  the  buccaneer  for  the  crimes 
that  made  him  a  popular  hero.  Cautious  in  her  pur 
poses,  devious  in  her  methods,  too  frugal  and  too 
poor  to  embark  on  great  undertakings  or  open  hos 
tility,  Elizabeth  encouraged  every  secret  enterprise 
and  every  private  adventure  which  had  for  its  object 
the  enrichment  of  her  subjects  at  the  expense  of  the 
common  enemy. 

John  Hawkins  will  ever  be  memorable  as  the  man 
who  first  openly  contested  the  double  monopoly  of 
Spain  and  Portugal,  and  taught  English  merchants 
'-how  arms  might  signally  help  the  expansion  of 
trade."  Descended  from  seafaring  ancestors,  his  own 
apprenticeship  was  served  in  voyages  to  the  African 
coast.  Negroes  were  plentiful  there,  and  laborers 
scarce  in  the  West  Indies.  Well  considering  that 
the  slave  trade  would  insure  the  salvation  of  the  be 
nighted  heathen  and  redound  to  the  profit  of  thrifty 
planters,  the  devout  Hawkins  set  about  serving  God 
and  mammon  for  the  advancement  of  his  own  for 
tunes  and  the  glory  of  England.  Writh  capital  sup 
plied  by  City  merchants,  three  vessels  were  equipped ; 
and  in  1562  Hawkins  sailed  for  Sierra  Leone,  where 
he  procured  by  force  or  purchase  three  hundred 
negroes,  who  were  exchanged  with  no  great  difficulty 
at  Hispaniola  for  a  rich  cargo  of  merchandise.  An 
enterprise  which  netted  sixty  per  cent  profit  was  not 
to  be  abandoned,  and  in  1564  a  second  voyage  was 
made,  with  greater  profit  still.  But  the  third  voyage, 
in  1567,  came  to  grief  at  San  Juan  de  Ulloa,  where 


42  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

Hawkins  fell  in  with  the  Spanish  plate  fleet.  The 
fleet  might  have  been  plundered,  but  the  naive  Haw 
kins,  relying  in  vain  upon  the  pledged  word  of  the 
Spaniards,  was  treacherously  attacked  and  his  ships 
mostly  destroyed,  while  he  himself  barely  escaped 
with  his  life. 

Accompanying  Hawkins  on  this  voyage,  and  escap 
ing  with  him  from  San  Juan  de  Ulloa,  was  "  a  certain 
Englishman,  called  Francis  Drake."  Reared  in  a 
Protestant  family  which  had  felt  the  effects  of  the 
reaction  under  Queen  Mary,  he  had  an  instinctive 
hatred  of  the  Roman  Church,  and  his  experience  at 
San  Juan  de  Ulloa  inspired  him  at  the  age  of  twenty 
with  a  lifelong  animosity  toward  all  Spaniards.  Re 
nouncing  the  semi-peaceful  methods  of  Hawkins, 
Drake  devoted  his  life  to  open  privateering,  never 
doubting  that  in  plundering  Spanish  ships  he  was 
discharging  a  private  debt  and  a  public  obligation. 
And  of  all  the  gentlemen  adventurers  who  made  plun 
der  respectable  and  raised  piracy  to  the  level  of  a  fine 
art,  he  was  the  greatest.  He  carried  himself  in  the 
"  pirate's  profession  with  a  courtesy,  magnanimity, 
and  unfailing  humanity,  that  gave  to  his  story  the 
glamour  of  romance."  No  other  name  struck  such 
fear  into  Spanish  hearts,  or  so  raised  in  English  ones 
the  spirit  of  adventure  and  of  contempt  for  the 
queen's  enemies.  He  is  known  in  Spanish  annals 
as  "  the  Dragon,"  and  before  he  died  the  maritime 
power  of  Spain  had  passed  its  zenith. 

Three  years  after  the  disaster  at  San  Juan  de  Ulloa 
the  trend  of  events  favored  the  bolder  course.  In 
1570  the  Pope's  Bull  deposing  Elizabeth  from  the 


PARTITION  OF  THE  NEW  WORLD    43 

English  throne  was  nailed  to  Lambeth  Palace ;  and 
in  1572,  not  without  the  tacit  approval  of  the  Gov 
ernment,  and  backed  by  the  rising  national  hostility 
to  Spain,  Drake  set  out  for  the  Indies,  where  he  oper 
ated  for  two  years,  planning  attacks  on  Cartagena 
and  Nombre  de  Dios,  or  rifling  the  treasure  trains 
as  they  came  overland  from  Panama.  Henceforth  the 
watchfulness  of  Spain  was  redoubled  in  the  West 
Indies ;  but  the  Pacific,  which  Drake  had  seen  from 
the  Peak  of  Darien,  was  still  regarded  as  a  safe  in 
land  lake.  Into  the  Pacific,  with  its  coasts  unpro 
tected  and  its  ships  scarcely  armed  at  all,  he  therefore 
determined  to  venture.  Authorized  by  the  queen  and 
with  Walsingham's  approval,  he  set  out  in  1577. 
Quelling  a  mutiny  as  his  great  predecessor  had  done  at 
St.  Julian,  he  passed  the  Straits  of  Magellan,  and 
sailed  northward  along  the  coast,  harming  no  man, 
but  taking  every  man's  treasure  until  the  ship  was 
full.  He  would  have  returned  home  by  some  north 
east  passage,  but  failed  to  find  any,  and  so  at  last 
crossed  the  Pacific  —  the  second  to  circumnavigate 
the  globe.  We  are  told  that  the  queen  "  received  him 
graciously,  and  laid  up  the  treasure  he  brought  by 
way  of  sequestration,  that  it  might  be  forthcoming 
if  the  Spaniards  should  demand  it." 

It  is  not  recorded  that  the  treasure  was  ever  restored, 
but  it  is  known  that  Drake  was  knighted  by  the 
queen  on  the  deck  of  the  Golden  Hind.  And  it  is 
recorded  that  in  1588  Philip  prepared  the  Invincible 
Armada,  which  appeared  in  the  English  Channel  to 
demand  the  submission  of  England.  It  was  a  decisive 
moment  in  the  history  of  America ;  and  it  is  doubt- 


44  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

ful  what  the  issue  might  have  been  had  the  queen 
been  dependent  upon  the  royal  navy  alone.  But  round 
the  twenty-nine  ships  of  the  royal  navy  there  gathered 
more  than  twice  as  many  of  those  privateers  who  in 
a  generation  of  conflict  had  become  past  masters  in 
dealing  with  the  ships  of  Spain.  Manned  by  sailors 
seasoned  to  every  hardship,  equipped  with  the  best 
cannon  of  the  day,  rapid  and  dexterous  in  movement, 
the  English  ships,  outnumbered  though  they  were, 
sailed  round  and  round  the  unwieldy  galleons  of  the 
Armada,  crippling  them  by  broadsides  and  destroy 
ing  them  with  fire-ships,  without  ever  being  brought 
to  close  quarters.  And  so  the  "  Invincible  navy  neither 
took  any  one  barque  of  ours,  neither  yet  once  offered 
to  land;  but  after  they  had  been  well  beaten  and 
chased,  made  a  long  and  sorry  perambulation  about 
the  northern  seas,  ennobling  many  coasts  with  wrecks 
of  noble  ships;  and  so  returned  home  with  greater 
derision  than  they  set  forth  with  expectation." 

The  defeat  of  the  Armada  was  followed  by  a  carni 
val  of  conquest.  Within  three  years  eight  hundred 
Spanish  ships  were  taken;  and  in  1596,  shortly  after 
the  deaths  of  Drake  and  Hawkins,  Sir  Thomas 
Howard  of  Effingham  captured  the  city  of  Cadiz  and 
returned  home  with  ships  full  of  plunder.  It  w^s  the 
last  great  operation  of  the  war,  and  the  begimflfig 
of  the  end  of  the  Spanish  Empire ;  for  the  way  was 
now  clear  for  the  maritime  and  colonial  expansion  of 
her  rivals.  The  Dutch,  with  independence  assured, 
organized  those  India  companies  through  which  they 
ousted  the  Portuguese  from  the  spice  islands,  and 
established,  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  discovered  by 


PARTITION  OF  THE  NEW  WORLD    45 

Henry  Hudson  in  1608,  the  colony  of  New  Nether- 
land  in  America.  With  the  civil  wars  of  religion 
happily  closed,  France  was  free  to  complete  the  work 
of  Car  tier.  In  1603  Champlain,  in  the  service  of  a 
St.  Malo  merchant,  sailed  up  the  St.  Lawrence  to 
Montreal ;  and  five  years  later  he  established  a  post 
on  the  Heights  of  Quebec,  destined  to  be  the  capital 
of  the  great  inland  empire  of  New  France.  And 
England,  whose  ships  now  sailed  the  sea  unchallenged, 
began  to  build  a  more  lasting  empire  in  America  and 
the  Orient.  It  was  in  1607  that  Virginia  was  planted ; 
and  three  years  later  Captain  Hippon,  in  the  service 
of  the  East  India  Company,  established  an  English 
factory  at  Masulipatam  in  the  Bay  of  Bengal. 

Ill 

A  notable  result  of  the  struggle  with  Spain  was 
the  growth  of  an  active  interest  in  colonization. 
Knowledge  of  the  wide  world,  which  Richard  Eden 
had  freshly  revealed  to  Englishmen  in  the  reign  of 
Mary,  was  greatly  enriched  by  the  voyages  of  the 
Elizabethan  seamen.  John  Davis,  returning  from  the 
Far  East,  made  known  "  as  well  the  King  of  Portu 
gal  his  places  of  Trade  and  Strength,  as  of  the  inter- 
chaHpable  trades  of  the  eastern  Nations  among 
tUPfselves  " ;  and  Cavendish,  who  was  the  third  to 
"  circompasse  the  whole  globe  of  the  world,"  brought 
to  the  queen  "certain  intelligence  of  all  the  rich 
places  that  ever  were  known  or  discovered  by  any 
Christian."  By  the  side  of  Drake  and  his  followers, 
whose  ambition  it  was  to  destroy  the  power  of  Spain 
in  the  New  WTorld,  stand  the  brilliant  Gentlemen 


46  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

Adventurers,  who  labored  to  plant  there  the  power 
of  England :  Frobisher  and  Davis,  the  gentle  and 
heroic  Gilbert,  and  Raleigh,  poet  and  statesman,  the 
very  perfect  knight-errant  of  his  age,  whose  faith 
in  America  survived  many  failures  and  is  registered 
in  words  as  prophetic  as  they  are  pathetic  —  "  I  shall 
yet  live  to  see  it  an  English  nation."  The  adven 
turous  and  pioneering  spirit  of  the  time  is  forever 
preserved  in  that  true  epic  of  the  Elizabethan  age, 
the  incomparable  Voyages  of  Richard  Hakluyt;  and 
in  the  Discourse  on  Western  Plantinge,  which  he 
wrote  at  the  request  of  Raleigh  for  the  enlightenment 
of  the  queen,  as  well  as  in  the  general  literature  of 
the  next  fifty  years,  are  revealed  to  us  the  ideas, 
mostly  mistaken  and  often  naive,  which  gave  to 
America  the  glamour  of  a  promised  land. 

Of  the  motives  which  inspired  the  colonizing  ac 
tivity  of  England  at  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  cen 
tury,  the  desire  to  spread  the  Protestant  religion  was 
no  unreal  one.  The  war  for  independence,  having 
taken  on  the  character  of  a  crusade,  had  touched 
with  emotional  fervor  the  Englishman's  loyalty  to 
the  national  faith.  Religion  became  a  national  asset 
when  it  was  thought  to  be  served  by  an  extension 
of  the  queen's  domain.  The  pride  of  patriotism,  as 
well  as  the  sense  of  duty,  was  stirred  by  the  fact 
that  whereas  Spanish  Papists  had  been  "  the  con 
verters  of  many  millions  of  infidells,"  English  Prot 
estants  had  done  nothing  for  "  thinlargement  of  the 
Gospell  of  Christe."  It  was  felt  to  be  the  duty  of 
Englishmen  to  take  on  this  "  white  man's  burden," 
and  for  the  sake  of  the  true  faith  plant  "  one  or  two 


PARTITION  OF  THE  NEW  WORLD    47 

colonies  upon  that  fyrme,  learn  the  language  of  the 
people,  and  so  with  discretion  and  myldeness  Instill 
into  their  purged  myndes  the  swete  a'nd  lively  liquor 
of  the  Gospell." 

Yet  the  religious  motive  was  buttressed  by  others 
more  material  and  less  disinterested.  Until  well  into 
the  seventeenth  century,  when  much  bitter  experience 
had  proved  the  contrary,  America  was  still  thought 
to  be  a  land  of  wealth  easily  acquired  —  "as  great 
a  profit  to  the  Realme  of  England  as  the  Indies  to 
the  King  of  Spain."  Many  credible  persons,  said 
Hakluyt,  had  found  in  that  country  "  golde,  silver, 
copper,  leade,  and  pearles  in  aboundaunce  ;  precious 
stones,  as  turquoises  and  emaurldes;  spices  and 
drugges ;  silke  worms  fairer  than  ours  of  Europe  ; 
white  and  red  cotton  ;  infinite  multitude  of  all  kindes 
of  fowles ;  excellent  vines  in  many  places  for  wines ; 
the  soyle  apte  to  beare  olyves  for  oyle  ;  all  kinds  of 
fruites  ;  all  kindes  of  oderiferous  trees  and  date  trees, 
cypresses,  and  cedars ;  and  in  New  founde  lande 
aboundaunce  of  pines  and  firr  trees  to  make  mastes 
and  deale  boards,  pitch,  tar,  rosen  ;  hempe  for  cables 
and  cordage;  and  upp  within  the  Graunde  Baye, 
excedinge  quantitie  of  all  kinde  of  precious  furres." 
So  that  one  may  "  well  and  truly  conclude  with  rea 
son  and  authoritie,  that  all  the  commodities  of  our 
olde  decayed  and  daungerous  trades  in  all  Europe, 
Africa,  and  Asia  haunted  by  us,  may  in  short  space 
and  for  little  or  nothinge,  in  a  manner  be  had  in 
that  part  of  America  which  lieth  betweene  30  and 
60  degrees  of  northerly  latitude." 

Little  wonder  that  the  New  World  of  America, 


48  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

thus  portrayed  in  heightened  colors,  proved  attractive 
to  gentlemen  adventurers  dreaming  of  personal  domin 
ion,  to  merchants  intent  upon  profit,  or  to  kings 
seeking  revenue  and  prestige.  The  colonizing  activ 
ities  of  the  time  were  but  incidental  to  the  larger 
movement  of  commercial  expansion  and  the  exten 
sion  of  political  power.  The  founding  of  the  East 
India  Company  in  1600  and  of  the  Virginia  Com 
pany  in  1609  were  but  two  expressions  of  the  same 
purpose :  America  was  but  one  of  the  two  Indies 
whose  exploitation  would  redound  at  once  to  private 
advantage  and  to  national  welfare.  That  the  individ 
ual  and  the  state  had  a  common  and  inseparable 
interest  in  the  expansion  of  commerce  and  the  set 
tlement  of  colonies  is,  indeed,  one  of  the  most  char 
acteristic  and  significant  ideas  of  the  time :  charac 
teristic,  since  it  pervades  the  literature  of  the  period  ; 
significant,  because  it  is  an  index  of  those  profound 
political  and  economic  influences  that  were  trans 
forming  the  old  into  the  new  Europe. 

For  at  the  opening  of  the  seventeenth  century  the 
old  order  was  fast  disappearing.  The  ideal  of  a  sin 
gle  Christian  community,  so  long  symbolized  by  the 
Holy  Roman  Empire  and  the  Holy  Catholic  Church, 
was  losing  its  hold  upon  the  minds  of  men  as  the 
result  of  the  differentiation  of  European  culture  on 
lines  of  racial  or  national  distinction.  In  politics  this 
movement  was  embodied  in  the  rise  of  the  central 
ized  national  state ;  and  the  sixteenth  century  ushered 
in  the  era  of  international  wars,  of  which  the  strug 
gle  between  Elizabeth  and  Philip  II  was  one,  and 
one  of  the  most  important.  When  such  conflicts 


PARTITION  OF  THE  NEW  WORLD    49 

were  always  impending,  it  was  essential  that  the 
resources  of  the  nation  should  be  at  the  disposal  of 
the  Government.  The  national  state  could,  there 
fore,  neither  share  authority  with  the  Pope  at  Rome, 
nor  endure  independent  feudal  or  municipal  jurisdic 
tions  within  the  realm  ;  and  in  its  military  and  ad 
ministrative  organization,  feudal  officers,  since  the 
thirteenth  century  in  France  and  England,  had  been 
steadily  replaced  by  paid  agents  appointed  by  the 
king,  whose  hostility  to  the  Pope  was  chiefly  inspired 
by  the  desire  to  secure  from  the  Church  the  money 
necessary  to  maintain  them.  A  well-filled  treasury 
was  thus  the  first  need  of  the  sixteenth-century  state, 
and  so  it  fell  out  that  in  western  Europe  the  middle 
class  —  the  merchant  and  the  capitalist  and  the 
money-lender  —  was  the  chief  resource  of  kings  in 
conflict  with  feudal  or  ecclesiastical  privilege.  The 
prosperity  of  the  trading  class  and  the  efficiency  of 
the  Government  were  thought  to  be  inseparable ;  and 
that  commerce  should  be  regulated  in  the  interest  of 
the  state  was,  therefore,  the  unquestioned  maxim  of 
the  age. 

Two  things  above  all  the  interest  of  the  state  de 
manded  :  that  the  supply  of  precious  metals  should 
not  diminish ;  and  that  the  nation  should  not  be  de 
pendent  upon  rival  countries  for  staple  commodi 
ties.  The  supply  of  gold  and  silver  actually  present 
in  the  king's  coffers,  or  within  the  radius  of  his  tax- 
gatherers,  was  of  far  greater  moment  then  than  now. 
The  issues  of  war,  in  an  age  when  credit  was  rela 
tively  undeveloped,  were  likely  to  depend  upon  it. 
Scarcely  less  important  was  the  question  of  staples. 


50  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

To  be  dependent  upon  rivals  for  necessities  was 
thought  to  threaten  at  once  the  prosperity  of  the 
trading  class  and  the  strength  of  the  Government : 
giving  hostages  to  the  enemy  in  time  of  war  and  a 
diplomatic  advantage  in  time  of  peace ;  carrying  off 
the  supply  of  gold  and  silver ;  and  likely,  there 
fore,  by  raising  the  value  of  money,  to  disorganize 
industry  and  deplete  the  sources  of  the  state's  rev 
enue.  To  be  economically  self-sufficing  in  order  to 
be  politically  independent  was  the  cardinal  doctrine. 
"  That  Realme  is  most  compleat  and  wealthie  which 
either  hath  sufficient  to  serve  itselfe  or  can  finde 
means  to  exporte  of  the  naturall  comodities  [more] 
than  it  hath  occasion  necessarily  to  import,"  said  an 
English  writer,  expressing  in  a  phrase  the  essential 
principle  of  mercantilism,  which,  indeed,  was  only 
the  old  feudal  or  municipal  ideal  adapted  to  the 
needs  of  the  national  state. 

A  theory  which  crystallized  the  practice  of  two 
centuries  must  have  been  more  than  "  an  economic 
fallacy."  And,  indeed,  in  the  time  of  Elizabeth  and 
the  first  Stuarts  it  was  a  condition  and  not  a  theory 
that  confronted  England.  Many  essential  commodi 
ties  had  long  been  imported  from  countries  \vhich, 
toward  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century,  were  dis 
posed  to  place  obstacles  in  the  way  of  English  trade. 
From  Baltic  lands  came  naval  stores,  and  potash  so 
necessary  to  the  woolen  industry.  Mediterranean 
countries  furnished  salt,  dried  fruits,  sugar,  and  the 
staple  luxuries  wine  and  silk.  Dyes,  saltpeter,  and 
spices  from  the  Far  East  were  sold  to  English  mer 
chants  by  the  Portuguese  or  the  Dutch ;  and  at  ex- 


PARTITION  OF  THE  NEW  WORLD    51 

orbitant  prices,  for  the  thrifty  Plollanders  no  sooner 
got  control  of  the  spice  islands  than  they  raised  the 
price  of  pepper  from  three  to  eight  shillings  per 
pound.  And  it  was  the  Dutch,  intrenched  in  the 
European  fisheries  partly  through  favors  granted  by 
Elizabeth,  who  imported  into  England  two  thirds  of 
the  fish  so  extensively  consumed  by  the  nation. 

While  England  was  dependent  upon  rivals  for 
many  necessities,  the  foreign  markets  for  her  own 
products  were  now  becoming  inadequate.  Apart  from 
wool,  England  exported  little ;  but  the  confiscation 
of  the  monasteries,  the  ruin  of  Antwerp,  the  rising 
prices  resulting  from  the  influx  of  silver  from  New 
Spain,  contributed  to  stimulate  English  industry  and 
to  increase  in  some  measure  the  volume  of  commod 
ities  seeking  markets  abroad.  Yet  the  markets  were 
closing  in  some  places  and  becoming  less  accessible  in 
others.  "  It  is  publically  knowne  that  traffique  with 
our  neighbor  countries  begins  to  be  of  small  request, 
the  game  seldom  answering  the  merchant's  adventure, 
and  foraigne  states  either  are  already  or  at  the  pres 
ent  are  preparing  to  inriche  themselves  with  wool 
and  cloth  of  their  own  which  heretofore  they  bor 
rowed  of  us."  English  traders  were  persecuted  in 
Spain ;  English  exports  were  checked  by  tariffs  in 
France  and  by  Sound  dues  in  Denmark ;  privileges 
formerly  enjoyed  in  German  towns  were  being  with 
drawn  in  retaliation  for  the  exclusion  of  Hanse  mer 
chants  from  advantages  long  enjoyed  in  London  ; 
and  as  for  Flanders,  heretofore  the  great  mart  for 
English  wool,  the  civil  wars  had,  as  Hakluyt  says, 
"  spoiled  the  traffique  there." 


52  THE   AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

The  desire  to  change  this  untoward  condition  of 
things  was  what  inspired  the  unwarranted  enthusi 
asm  of  the  time  for  American  and  Indian  coloniza 
tion.  The  voyages  of  Willoughby  and  Frobisher, 
seeking  some  northeast  or  northwest  passage,  were 
but  the  prelude  to  the  later  voyages  by  way  of  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope  and  to  the  foundation  of  the 
East  India  Company,  the  specific  purpose  of  which 
was  to  procure  the  products  of  the  Orient  independ 
ently  of  the  Dutch  and  at  lower  cost.  The  colonization 
of  America  it  was  supposed  would  serve  a  similar 
purpose.  It  was  still  thought  to  be  rich  in  precious 
metals  ;  its  soil  well  adapted  to  commodities  now 
purchased  in  the  Levant.  Its  waters  would  furnish 
England  with  the  herring  now  purchased  of  the 
Dutch,  and  its  forests  would  make  her  independent 
of  the  Baltic  countries  for  naval  supplies.  Once  gain 
a  footing  in  India  and  America,  and  the  commerce 
of  England,  now  so  largely  foreign,  would  be  diverted 
into  national  channels  to  the  benefit  of  all  concerned : 
"  Our  monies  and  wares  that  nowe  run  into  the  hands 
of  our  adversaries  or  cowld  frendes  shall  pass  into 
our  frendes  and  naturall  kinsmen  and  from  them 
likewise  we  shall  receive  such  things  as  shallbe  most 
available  to  our  necessities,  which  intercourse  of 
trade  maye  rather  be  called  a  home  bread  traffique 
than  a  forraigne  exchange." 

The  identification  of  the  industrial  and  political 
interests  of  the  nation  with  the  fortunes  of  the  cen 
tralized  state  was  necessarily  accompanied  by  a 
marked  change  in  the  character  of  international 
trade.  The  national  king,  whose  power  rested  so 


PARTITION  OF  THE  NEW  WORLD    53 

largely  upon  the  industrial  class,  could  not  leave  in 
the  hands  of  municipal  councils  the  control  which 
they  had  formerly  exercised ;  while  long  ocean  voy 
ages,  and  traffic  with  countries  inhabited  by  alien 
and  often  hostile  people,  required  the  combined  cap 
ital  of  many  men  and  a  more  powerful  backing  than 
any  municipal  council  could  furnish.  Individual 
trading,  therefore,  gave  way  to  corporate  trading ; 
the  joint-stock  company,  assisted  or  controlled  by  the 
state,  replaced  the  individual  merchant  operating 
under  municipal  encouragement  and  protection.  It 
was  accordingly  in  the  age  of  Elizabeth,  when  Eng 
lish  merchants  were  lamenting  the  want  of  markets, 
and  when  English  ships  were  pushing  into  every  part 
of  the  world,  that  such  chartered  trading  companies 
made  their  appearance  in  rapid  succession,  taking 
their  names  from  the  distant  regions  in  which  they 
obtained  a  monopoly  —  Cathay,  the  Baltic,  Turkey, 
Morocco,  Africa.  Of  these,  and  of  all  subsequent 
organizations  of  a  similar  character,  the  most  famous 
in  England  was  the  East  India  Company.  By  the 
charter,  which  bears  date  December  31,  1600,  two 
hundred  and  fifteen  knights  and  merchants  were  in 
corporated  into  a  self-governing  association  compe 
tent  to  acquire  property  in  land,  and  enjoying  a  mo 
nopoly  of  English  trade  with  all  countries  lying  east 
of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  as  far  as  the  Straits  of 
Magellan.  The  laws  of  the  company  were  required 
to  conform  to  those  of  England,  and  its  officers  to 
take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Crown.  Encoun 
tering  many  obstacles  and  some  serious  reverses,  the 
Company  soon  established  a  thriving  trade  in  the 


54  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

Indian  Ocean ;  its  great  East  Indiamen  acquired  a 
fame  unique  in  the  annals  of  commerce  ;  and  the  cor 
poration  itself,  with  privileges  confirmed  arid  extended 
by  Charles  II,  was  destined  in  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury  to  be  the  chief  instrument  in  the  establishment 
of  England's  Indian  Empire. 

IV 

When  English  knights  and  merchants  set  out  to 
establish  colonies  in  the  New  World,  two  familiar 
institutions  were  convenient  to  the  purpose  —  the 
proprietary  feudal  grant,  and  the  chartered  trading 
company ;  noblemen  ambitious  for  personal  dominion 
turned  naturally  to  the  former,  while  merchants  in 
tent  upon  profits  turned  as  naturally  to  the  latter. 
The  first  hapless  ventures  in  American  planting, 
dominated  by  the  idealistic  and  militant  temper  of 
the  Elizabethan  age,  were  initiated  and  directed  in 
the  spirit  of  the  gentleman  adventurer :  in  the  spirit 
of  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  who  identified  America 
with  the  fabled  Atlantis  and  lost  his  life  in  a  pathetic 
attempt  to  establish  an  English  colony  in  Newfound 
land  ;  in  the  spirit  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  whose  fa 
mous  lost  colony,  settled  in  the  year  1587,  exhausted 
his  fortune  and  disappeared  at  last,  leaving  no  trace. 
These  men  were  less  interested  in  profit  than  in  rep 
utation  ;  less  intent  upon  commercial  expansion  than 
on  the  extension  of  the  queen's  dominions.  But  their 
resources  were  too  limited,  their  ideals  too  little  prac 
tical  for  the  realization  of  their  dreams.  The  patents 
to  Gilbert  and  Raleigh  took  the  form  of  a  grant  of 
lordship  by  feudal  tenure  ;  and  from  the  papers  left 


PARTITION  OF  THE  NEW  WORLD    55 

by  the  former  we  can  create  again,  even  to  details, 
his  vision  of  a  transformed  wilderness,  America's 
future  state :  an  America  of  extensive  proprietary 
domains ;  an  America  reproducing,  in  its  lords  and 
landed  gentry  surrounded  by  freeholder  and  tenant, 
in  its  counties  and  boroughs  and  parishes,  the  social 
and  political  aristocracy  of  old  England. 

The  proprietary  feudal  grant  was  destined  to  play 
its  part  in  the  colonization  of  America,  but  the  re 
splendent  vision  of  Gilbert  did  not  survive  the  reign 
of  Elizabeth.  Raleigh  was  the  last  of  the  great 
Elizabethan  adventurers,  and  with  the  accession  of 
the  pedantic  James  I  the  New  World  was  beginning 
to  be  regarded  in  the  dry  light  of  a  commercial  op 
portunity.  To  the  knights  and  merchants  who  had 
witnessed  the  vain  efforts  of  Gilbert  and  Raleigh, 
the  chartered  company  seemed  better  adapted  to 
their  purposes  than  the  proprietary  grant.  The  meth 
ods  that  had  proved  fortunate  in  the  Old  World 
would  doubtless  prove  equally  so  in  the  New ;  and 
in  the  year  1609,  men  who  were  already  netting  one 
hundred  per  cent  profit  from  their  investments  in 
the  India  Company  were  prepared  to  venture  some 
thing  in  a  solid  business  scheme  to  exploit  the  re 
sources  of  America. 

A  tentative  scheme,  failing  for  want  of  efficient 
organization,  had  already  been  set  on  foot.  Three 
years  earlier,  in  1606,  James  had  been  induced  to 
license  sundry  of  his  loving  subjects  "  to  deduce  and 
conduct  two  several  colonies  or  plantations  in  Amer 
ica."  Among  those  active  in  the  undertaking  were 
Bartholomew  Gosnold,  recently  returned  from  a 


56  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

Western  voyage,  Richard  Hakluyt,  Sir  Thomas 
Gates,  Sir  George  Somers,  and  Edward  Maria  Wing- 
field,  a  London  merchant.  Though  not  incorporated, 
the  patentees  were  formed  into  two  companies,  the 
London  Company,  so  called  because  its  members 
were  mainly  London  merchants,  and  the  Plymouth 
Company,  consisting  mainly  of  merchants  from  Plym 
outh  and  the  west  of  England.  Each  company  was 
permitted  to  establish  one  colony  having  a  jurisdic 
tion  one  hundred  miles  along  the  coast  and  one 
hundred  miles  inland;  the  London  Company  any 
where  between  34°  and  41°,  the  Plymouth  Company 
anywhere  between  38°  and  45°,  north  latitude ;  pro 
vided  only  that  no  colony  should  be  located  within 
one  hundred  miles  of  one  already  established.  The 
patent  provided  that  there  should  be  in  each  col 
ony,  for  managing  its  affairs,  a  resident  council  of 
thirteen  members  which  was  to  take  instructions 
from  the  Royal  Council  for  Virginia,  a  body  of  four 
teen  men  —  afterwards  enlarged  —  residing  in  Eng 
land  and  appointed  and  controlled  by  the  king.  The 
patentees  were  permitted  to  trade  freely  within  the 
limits  designated  by  the  grant,  and  to  enjoy  the 
customs  dues  exacted  from  other  Englishmen  and 
from  foreigners  who  might  wish  to  compete  with 
them. 

After  a  single  vain  attempt  to  establish  a  colony 
at  Sagadahoc,  the  Plymouth  Company  confined  its  ac 
tivities  to  trade  and  exploration  within  the  region  to 
which  John  Smith  in  1614  gave  the  name  of  New  Eng 
land.  Sir  Fernando  Gorges  was  one  of  the  patentees 
actively  interested  in  these  ventures  ;  and  in  1620  he 


PARTITION  OF  THE  NEW  WORLD    57 

procured,  for  himself  and  associates  to  the  number 
of  forty,  a  charter  which  tranformed  the  old  com 
pany  into  a  close  corporation  under  the  title  of  the 
New  England  Council  or  Corporation  for  New  Eng 
land.  Upon  the  patentees  the  charter  conferred  the 
sole  right  to  trade,  to  grant  title  to  land,  and  to 
establish  and  govern  colonies  within  the  region  be 
tween  40°  and  48°,  north  latitude,  in  America.  The 
New  England  Council  possessed  neither  the  capital 
nor  the  popular  support  necessary  for  engaging  in  col 
onizing  ventures  ;  and  during  the  fifteen  years  of  its 
existence  it  did  little  but  sublet  to  others  the  rights 
which  it  possessed.  Of  the  council's  land  grants,  of 
which  there  were  many  both  to  individuals  and  to  cor 
porations,  and  which,  often  conflicting,  furnished  the 
grounds  for  innumerable  future  disputes,  four  only  are 
important  as  the  basis  of  permanent  colonies  in  New 
England.  The  territory  at  Plymouth  was  granted  to 
the  Pilgrims  in  1621;  in  1628  the  territory  between 
the  Merrimac  and  the  Charles  Rivers  was  conveyed 
to  the  Company  of  Massachusetts  Bay ;  and  two 
grants  made  in  1629,  of  territory  between  the  Mer 
rimac  and  the  Piscataqua  to  John  Mason,  of  terri 
tory  between  the  Piscataqua  and  the  Kennebec  to 
Fernando  Gorges,  mark  the  beginnings  of  the  colo 
nies  of  New  Hampshire  and  Maine.  All  its  ventures 
profited  the  New  England  Council  nothing.  Febru 
ary  3,  1635,  the  territory  within  its  jurisdiction  was 
parceled  out  among  the  patentees,  and  on  June  7,  its 
charter  of  fruitless  privileges  was  surrendered. 

It  was  reserved  for  the  London  Company  to  begin 
the  planting  of  the  first  American  commonwealth  ; 


58  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

but  it  was  by  happy  chances  rather  than  by  wise 
foresight  in  the  promoters  that  the  colony  outlived 
the  company.  The  first  comers,  who  were  set  down 
at  Jamestown  in  1607,  would  soon  have  perished  but 
for  the  harsh  good  sense  of  the  redoubtable  Captain 
John  Smith ;  and  two  years'  experience  with  the 
wilderness  and  the  Indian,  with  dissensions  among 
settlers  and  councillors,  demonstrated  that  the  pat 
ent  was  unsuited  to  the  purposes  for  which  it  had 
been  granted.  More  colonists  were  needed  in  the 
colony,  more  capital  required  to  transport  and  main 
tain  them,  more  authority  to  direct  and  control  them. 
To  meet  these  needs,  a  charter  was  obtained  in  1609 
which  created  an  incorporated  joint-stock  company 
under  the  title  of  "  The  Treasurer  and  Company  of 
Adventurers  and  Planters  of  the  City  of  London  for 
the  First  Colony  of  Virginia."  Shares  were  offered 
for  subscription,  to  be  paid  for  in  money  by  the  ad 
venturers  who  remained  in  England,  and  in  personal 
service  by  the  planters  who  went  to  the  colony.  Each 
shareholder,  whether  adventurer  or  planter,  was  a 
member  of  the  company,  and  was  to  receive  such 
dividends  as  his  shares  might  earn.  The  undertaking 
was  widely  advertised ;  and  when  the  charter  passed 
the  seals,  shares  had  been  subscribed  by  659  indi 
viduals,  including  21  peers,  96  knights,  58  gentle 
men,  110  merchants,  and  282  citizens,  and  by  56  of 
the  companies  of  the  City  of  London. 

The  affairs  of  the  new  company  were  to  be  man 
aged  by  a  treasurer  and  council,  resident  in  Eng 
land,  and  appointed  and  controlled  by  the  freemen 
assembled  in  general  court.  The  little  colony  in  Vir- 


PARTITION  OF  THE  NEW  WORLD    59 

ginia  was  but  an  adjunct  to  the  company,  and  its 
management  was  left,  without  other  than  conven 
tional  and  perfunctory  restrictions,  to  the  treasurer 
and  council,  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  freemen. 
The  first  treasurer  was  Sir  Thomas  Srnythe,  who  was 
also  the  first  president  of  the  East  India  Company, 
a  great  merchant  in  his  day,  whose  influence  in  Vir 
ginia  was  a  predominant  one  until  he  was  succeeded 
as  treasurer  by  Edwin  Sandys  in  1618.  Smythe  and 
his  associates  were  little  interested  in  the  transmis 
sion  of  English  institutions  to  the  New  World.  They 
did  not  regard  Virginia,  as  the  historian  is  apt  to  do, 
in  the  interesting  light  of  an  experiment  in  constitu 
tional  liberalism,  or  conceive  of  the  company  as  the 
mother  of  nations.  Their__ object  was  to  pay  divi 
dends  to  the  shareholders,  and  the  colonist  was  ex 
pected  to  exploit  the  resources  of  Virginia  for  the 
benefit  of  the  company  of  which  he  was  a  member. 
Virginia  was  in  fact  a  plantation  owned  by  the  com 
pany  -,  its  settlers  were  the  company's  servants,  freely 
transported  in  its  vessels,  fed  and  housed  at  its  ex 
pense,  the  product  of  their  labor  at  its  disposal  for 
the  benefit  of  all  concerned. 

With  these  ideas  in  mind,  and  enlightened  by  past 
experience,  the  company  appointed  Sir  Thomas  Gates 
to  be  "  sole  and  absolute  Governor,"  and  sent  him 
out  in  16 09,  together  with  five  hundred  settlers  in  nine 
ships.  Two  vessels  were  wrecked,  and  what  with  plague 
and  fever  less  than  half  the  new  colonists  ever  reached 
Virginia.  The  governor  was  himself  stranded  on  the 
Bermudas ;  and  when  he  finally  arrived  after  nine 
months,  sixty  starving  settlers  were  found  scattered 


60  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

along  the  James  River.  Men  who  had  been  reduced 
to  eating  their  dead  comrades  or  the  putrid  flesh  of 
buried  Indians  were  scarcely  good  material  for  regen 
erating  a  feeble  plantation.  Sir  Thomas  Gates,  there 
fore,  decided  to  abandon  the  colony.  But  by  a  happy 
chance,  as  he  was  sailing  with  the  survivors  down 
the  river,  he  met  Lord  de  la  Warr  come  from  Eng 
land  with  fresh  supplies  and  new  recruits  ;  whereupon 
he  turned  back,  still  hoping  to  retrieve  the  desperate 
fortunes  of  Virginia. 

The  decision  proved  wise  in  the  event.  But  it  was 
doubtless  due  to  the  drastic  measures  of  the  company 
that  the  misfortunes  of  previous  years  were  not  re 
peated.  The  governor  returned  to  England,  leaving 
the  colony  in  the  hands  of  De  la  Warr,  who  governed 
in  the  spirit  of  the  instructions  issued  to  Gates  at  the 
time  of  his  appointment.  Popularly  known  as  "Dale's 
Laws,"  the  regulations  under  which  Virginia  was 
finally  made  self-supporting  were  published  by  Gates 
after  his  return  in  1611,  under  the  title  of  "  Articles, 
Laws  and  Orders,  Divine,  Politique,  and  Martial  for 
the  Government  of  Virginia."  The  new  code  was 
based  upon  the  military  laws  of  the  Netherlands,  and 
was  enforced  in  the  spirit  with  which  the  experience  of 
Gates  and  Dale  had  made  them  familiar.  From  blas 
phemy  to  disrespect,  from  murder  to  idleness  or  em 
bezzlement  of  the  common  store,  the  company's 
servants  were  liable  to  meet  the  knife,  the  lash,  or 
the  gallows  at  every  turn.  Until  1618  the  regime  of 
martial  law  was  maintained  ;  and  the  settlers  stood 
guard  or  marched  to  the  fields  at  the  word  of  com 
mand,  scarcely  aware,  doubtless,  that  they  had  been 


PARTITION  OF  THE  NEW  WORLD    61 

granted  all  the  liberties  enjoyed  by  men  "  born  within 
this  our  realm  of  England." 

The  military  regime  which  made  Virginia  self- 
supporting  did  not  make  it  prosperous,  or  profitable 
to  the  company.  In  December,  1618,  after  an  expen 
diture  of  ,£80,000  sterling,  there  were  in  the  colony 
"600  persons,  men,  women  and  children,  and  cattle 
three  hundred  att  the  most.  And  the  Company  was 
then  lefte  in  debt  neer  five  thousand  pounds."  The 
hard-headed  Smythe  saw  little  prospect  of  the  divi 
dends  which  the  shareholders  were  demanding ;  and 
he  was  ready  to  give  way  to  any  one  who  still  had 
faith  to  sink  yet  more  money  in  the  enterprise  that 
for  a  dozen  years  had  disappointed  every  expecta 
tion.  Such  an  idealist  was  Sir  Edwin  Sandys.  Son 
of  a  Puritan  Archbishop  of  York,  he  had  studied  at 
Oxford  under  Richard  Hooker,  whose  famous  book 
he  had  read  in  manuscript.  The  Ecclesiastical  Polity 
had  perhaps  confirmed  Sandys  in  a  republican  way 
of  thinking ;  and  in  the  year  1618  he  was  probably 
a  nonconformist  —  a  "religious  gentleman,"  as  Ed 
ward  Winslow  called  him :  at  all  events,  a  man  of 
humanitarian  and  anti-prerogative  instincts  ;  a  friend 
of  the  Earl  of  Southampton,  and  leader  of  those  in 
the  company  who  were  in  sympathy  with  the  rising 
tide  of  liberal  sentiment  in  English  politics. 

The  liberal  policy  which  Sandys  favored  in  Eng 
land,  he  was  now  prepared  to  adopt  for  the  manage 
ment  of  Virginia.  Convinced  that  the  military  and 
joint-stock  regime,  even  if  it  had  ever  served  a  useful 
purpose,  was  retarding  the  development  of  the  colony, 
Sandys  and  Southampton  determined  to  reverse  the 


62  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

policy  of  their  predecessors  by  instituting  private 
property  in  land  and  conceding  a  measure  of  self- 
government.  A  popular  assembly  was  accordingly 
established  in  1619  ;  restrictions  on  conduct  and  reli 
gious  opinion  were  relaxed ;  and  land  grants,  both 
to  individuals  and  to  corporations,  in  small  and  large 
tracts,  were  made  on  easy  terms.  It  was  hoped  that 
an  appeal  to  self-respect  and  to  self-interest  would 
encourage  immigration  and  foster  thrift  and  indus 
try.  When  Sandys  became  treasurer  in  1618  the 
time  seemed  propitious  ;  for  it  had  already  been  dis 
covered  that  Virginia  tobacco  could  be  sold  at  a 
profit  in  London  ;  and  it  was  the  expectation  of  San 
dys,  by  obtaining  for  the  company  its  fair  share  of 
the  profit  arising  from  the  importation  of  tobacco 
into  England,  to  repay  to  the  shareholders  the  long- 
delayed  interest  on  their  investments. 

The  scheme  was  not  without  great  possibilities, 
and  the  company  spared  neither  money  nor  effort  to 
make  it  a  success.  Within  three  years  more  than 
thirty-five  hundred  emigrants  crossed  to  Virginia.  In 
1621  the  expenditures  of  the  company  had  reached  a 
total  of  £100,000,  and  in  1624  the  amount  had  been 
doubled.  Yet,  quite  apart  from  the  high  death-rate 
which  depleted  the  colony,  or  the  Indian  massacre 
of  1622  which  threatened  its  existence,  all  the  efforts 
of  Sandys  ended  in  failure.  Drawn  into  the  main 
current  of  English  politics,  the  Virginia  Company 
was  unable  to  live  in  those  troubled  waters.  James 
regarded  with  little  favor  the  liberalism  which  San 
dys  and  Southampton  were  promoting  in  England  as 
well  as- in  America.  On  high  moral  grounds  he  dis- 


PARTITION  OF  THE  NEW  WORLD    63 

liked  the  use  of  tobacco,  and  for  economic  and  fiscal 
reasons  was  opposed  to  its  cultivation  in  Virginia. 
He  was  determined,  at  all  events,  that  such  profits  as 
might  arise  from  its  importation  should  enrich  the 
royal  exchequer  rather  than  a  powerful  corporation 
controlled  by  men  who  were  carping  at  the  king's 
prerogative.  And  the  king  found  support  in  the 
company  itself ;  for  Smythe  and  Warwick  turned 
against  the  corporation  and  furnished  pretexts  to 
prove  that  it  had  betrayed  its  trust  and  should  for 
feit  its  rights.  In  1624  the  charter  was  accordingly 
annulled,  and  Virginia  became  a  royal  province. 

Thus  ended  the  most  serious  attempt  of  a  commer 
cial  company  to  make  profit  out  of  American  plant 
ing.  Famous  and  successful  in  the  annals  of  coloni 
zation,  it  proved  a  complete  disaster  as  a  financial 
speculation.  During  the  reign  of  Charles  I,  mer 
chants  were  therefore  but  little  disposed  to  venture 
their  money  in  enterprises  of  that  kind.  Nor  was 
Charles  himself,  who  guarded  the  royal  prerogative 
more  jealously  even  than  James  had  done,  likely  to 
look  with  favor  upon  the  creation  of  corporations 
which  would  prove  useless  in  case  of  failure  and 
might  prove  dangerous  if  they  succeeded.  The  rough 
sea  of  politics  in  the  time  of  the  second  Stuart  was 
unsuited  to  floating  successful  colonial  ventures  of 
any  kind  under  governmental  sanction  ;  but  in  so  far 
as  he  was  disposed  to  further  the  development  of 
America,  it  was  natural  enough  for  Charles,  who 
found  that  his  usurping  Parliament  was  backed  by 
the  mercantile  interest,  to  frown  upon  colonial  cor 
porations,  and  to  make  use  of  the  proprietary  feudal 


64  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

grant  as  a  means  of  rewarding  the  courtiers  and 
nobles  who  supported  him.  The  very  year  that  the 
New  England  Council  surrendered  its  charter,  Arch 
bishop  Laud  was  urging  the  king  to  recall  that  of 
Massachusetts  Bay.  It  was  a  few  years  later  that 
Fernando  Gorges  was  made  Lord  Proprietor  of 
Maine ;  a  few  years  earlier  that  Lord  Baltimore,  a 
loyal  supporter  of  the  House  of  Stuart,  received  a 
feudal  grant  after  the  manner  of  the  Durham  Pala 
tinate  of  that  part  of  Virginia  which  was  to  be 
known  as  the  Province  of  Maryland. 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE   » 

The  best  accounts  of  early  exploration  and  settlement  in  Amer 
ica  are  in  Channing's  History  of  the  United  States,  i,  chaps,  m-vii; 
and  Bourne's  Spain  in  America,  chaps,  vi-ix.  An  admirable  ac 
count  of  the  activities  of  English  seamen  in  the  sixteenth  century 
is  given  by  Walter  Raleigh  in  volume  xu  of  his  edition  of  Hakluyt's 
Voyages.  An  interesting  contemporary  narrative  of  Drake's  voy 
age  around  the  world  is  in  Hakluyt's  Voyages  (Raleigh  ed.),  xi,  pp. 
101-33.  Hakluyt's  Discourse  on  Western  Plantinge  is  in  the  Maine 
Historical  Society  Collections,  series  u,  vol.  u.  For  the  rise  of  the 
chartered  trading  companies,  and  their  connection  with  early 
American  colonizing  companies,  see  Cheyney's  Background  of 
American  History,  chaps,  vii-vm.  The  best  discussion  of  the  Eng 
lish  interest  in  colonization  at  the  opening  of  the  seventeenth  cen 
tury  is  in  Beer's  The  Origins  of  the  British  Colonial  System,  chaps. 
i-m.  The  most  elaborate  and  learned  account  of  the  colonies  in 
the  seventeenth  century  is  that  of  Osgood,  The  American  Colonies 
in  the  17th  Century,  3  vols.  Macmillan,  1904.  The  most  readable 
account  of  the  founding  of  Virginia  is  in  Fiske's  Old  Virginia  and 
Her  Neighbours,  i,  chaps,  i-vi.  John  Smith's  account  of  the  settle 
ment  of  Jamestown  is  in  his  True  Relation,  printed  in  Arber, 
Works  of  Captain  John  Smith.  Birmingham,  1884. 


CHAPTER   III 

THE  ENGLISH    MIGRATION  IN  THE    SEVENTEENTH 
CENTURY 

They  are  too  delicate  and  unfitte  to  beginne  new  Plantations  and 
Collonies,  that  cannot  endure  the  biting  of  a  muskeeto. 

WILLIAM  BRADFORD. 

To  authorize  an  untruth,  by  toleration  of  State,  is  to  build  a  sconce 
against  the  Walls  of  Heaven,  to  batter  God  out  of  his  chair. 

The  Cobler  of  Aggawam. 

I  have  often  wondered  in  my  younger  dayes  how  the  Pope  came  to 
such  a  height  of  arogancie,  but  since  I  came  to  New  England  I  have 
perceived  the  height  of  that  tripple  crowne,  and  also  the  depth  of  that 
sea. 

SAMUEL  GORTON. 


THOSE  who  looked  to  America  for  great  financial 
profit  or  immediate  political  advantage  were  disap 
pointed.  The  seventeenth  century  had  run  half  its 
course  before  the  colonies  became  an  important  asset 
to  the  English  Government :  no  gold  came  from  them 
to  enrich  its  treasury,  few  supplies  to  furnish  its 
navy,  while  the  revenue  derived  from  its  slowly 
growing  trade  was  insignificant.  Equally  deceptive 
was  the  New  World  as  a  field  for  corporate  exploit 
ation.  The  sagacity  of  Thomas  Smythe  and  the  ideal 
ism  of  Edwin  Sandys  were  alike  unavailing.  Before 
the  Virginia  Company  was  dissolved  in  1624  it  had 
sunk  nearly  two  hundred  thousand  pounds  in  its 
venture  "  withoutt  returne  either  of  profitt  or  of 
any  part  of  the  principall";  and  in  1660  Lord 


6$  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

Baltimore,  whose  colony  was  well  established,  was 
himself  living  in  straitened  circumstances. 

Yet  within  sixty  years  after  the  Susan  Constant 
entered  the  James  River,  seven  colonies  were  firmly 
planted  on  the  coast  of  North  America:  Virginia 
and  Maryland  to  the  south;  Massachusetts  Bay  and 
Plymouth,  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island,  in  New 
England;  and  between  the  two  groups  of  English 
settlements  was  the  Dutch  colony  of  New  Nether- 
land  on  the  Hudson.  Within  the  limits  of  these 
colonies  dwelt  a  population  of  more  than  seventy 
thousand  people,  economically  self-sufficing,  possessed 
of  well-defined  political  institutions  and  clearly 
marked  types  of  social  and  intellectual  life.  The 
English  migration  and  the  founding  of  the  English 
colonies  was  in  fact  due  mainly  to  the  initiative  of 
the  colonists  themselves;  and  the  institutions  which 
they  established  in  America  were  different  from 
those  which  statesmen  and  traders  had  imagined. 
The  character  of  colonial  life  and  institutions  was 
determined  by  the  motives  which  induced  the  settlers 
to  leave  the  land  of  their  birth,  by  the  inherited 
traditions  which  they  carried  with  them  into  the 
wilderness,  and  by  the  wilderness  itself  —  the  cir 
cumstances  which,  in  the  new  country,  closed  them 
round. 

The  motives  which  induced  many  Englishmen  to 
come  to  America  in  the  seventeenth  century  must 
be  sought  in  the  profound  social  changes  occurring 
in  the  time  of  Elizabeth  and  the  first  Stuarts.  The 
high  hopes  with  which  the  Virginia  Company  looked 
forward  to  successful  colonization  were  partly  in- 


THE  ENGLISH  MIGRATION  67 

spired  by  the  prevailing  belief  that  England  was 
overpopulated.  There  was  much  to  justify  the  belief. 
The  reign  of  Elizabeth  witnessed  a  striking  increase 
in  the  number  of  unemployed,  the  poverty-stricken, 
and  the  vagabond.  The  destruction  of  the  monas 
teries  left  the  poor  and  defenseless  without  their 
accustomed  sources  of  relief;  while  steadily  rising 
prices,  due  partly  to  the  increased  supply  of  sil 
ver  from  the  Spanish-American  mines,  were  not 
infrequently  disastrous  to  those  who  were  already 
living  close  to  the  margin  of  subsistence.  As  never 
before  country  roads  and  the  streets  of  towns  were 
encumbered  with  the  vagrant  poor,  and  the  jails  and 
almshouses  were  filling  up,  as  a  result  of  Elizabethan 
legislation,  with  petty  thieves,  "rogues  and  sturdy 
beggars." 

That  the  surplus  population  would  readily  flow 
into  the  colonies,  to  the  advantage  of  all  concerned, 
was  the  common  belief.  For  successful  colonization, 
said  the  author  of  Nova  Britannia  in  1609,  but  two 
things  are  essential,  people  and  money ;  and  "  for 
the  first  wee  need  not  doubt,  our  land  abounding 
with  swarms  of  idle  persons,  so  that  if  wee  seeke  not 
some  waies  for  their  foreine  employment,  wee  must 
provide  shortly  more  prisons  and  corrections  for 
their  bad  conditions."  Yet  for  more  than  a  decade 
one  of  the  chief  difficulties  of  the  Virginia  Com 
pany  was  to  procure  settlers.  Reports  from  Virginia 
were  discouraging.  The  prosperous  preferred  to  re 
main  at  home,  and  the  company  had  "  to  take  any 
that  could  be  got  of  any  sort  on  any  terms."  Little 
wonder  that  the  colony  for  many  years  barely  sur- 


68  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

vived.  It  survived  only  by  taking  on  the  character 
of  a  penal  camp,  in  which  the  settlers  worked  for 
the  company  that  fed  them,  and  ordered  their  daily 
routine  by  the  regulations  of  martial  law. 

The  settlement  was  doubtless  saved  from  destruc 
tion,  but  it  did  not  greatly  prosper,  under  the  mili 
tary  and  joint-stock  regime ;  for  "  when  our  people 
were  fed  out  of  the  common  store,  glad  was  he  who 
could  slip  from  his  labour  or  slumber  over  his  task 
he  cared  not  how."  The  first  step  in  the  abolition 
of  the  joint  stock  was  taken  in  1616  when  Sir 
Thomas  Dale  "  allotted  to  every  man  three  acres  of 
land  in  the  nature  of  farms."  It  was  the  beginning 
of  better  things,  since  not  even  the  most  honest 
men,  when  working  for  the  company,  "  would  take 
so  much  pains  in  a  weeke  as  now  for  themselves 
they  would  do  in  a  day."  The  first  general  distribu 
tion  was  made  in  1618,  and  within  a  few  years  the 
communistic  system  was  a  thing  of  the  past.  Through 
out  the  century  the  "  head  right "  was  the  nominal 
basis  for  the  granting  of  land :  fifty  acres  were  re 
garded  as  the  equivalent  of  the  cost  of  transporting 
one  colonist.  But  in  fact  the  head  right  was  cus 
tomarily  evaded.  The  payment  of  from  one  to  five 
shillings  was  usually  sufficient  to  secure  title  to  fifty 
acres,  and  in  1705  the  practice  was  legalized.  Titles 
so  secured  were  burdened  with  the  payment  of  a 
small  quit-rent  to  the  state ;  but  the  quit-rent  was 
difficult  to  collect,  was  often  in  arrears,  and  some- 
.  times  never  paid. 

A  greater  incentive  to  settlement  than  free  land 
was  the  discovery  of  a  crop  that  could  be  exported 


THE  ENGLISH  MIGRATION  69 

at  a  profit.  Virginia  had  been  founded  to  raise  silk 
and  tropical  products,  and  to  supply  England  with 
naval  stores.  But  the  difficulties  were  greater  than 
had  been  anticipated,  and  in  1616,  when  John  Rolfe, 
having  discovered  a  superior  method  of  curing  the 
leaf,  sold  a  cargo  of  native  tobacco  in  London  at  a 
profit,  the  future  of  Virginia  was  assured.  Neither 
the  plans  of  the  company  nor  the  scruples  of  the 
king  could  prevail  against  the  force  of  economic 
self-interest.  Twenty  thousand  pounds  were  ex 
ported  in  1619,  forty  thousand  in  1622,  sixty  thou 
sand  in  1624.  Tobacco  became  at  once,  and  in  spite 
of  long  opposition  on  the  part  of  the  home  Govern 
ment  remained,  the  chief  enterprise  of  the  colony. 
Virgiuia  was  founded  on  tobacco,  and  like  the  other 
Southern  colonies,  sacrificed  everything  to  the  rais 
ing  of  her  most  important  commodity ;  and  for  Vir 
ginia,  as  for  the  other  Southern  colonies,  the  con 
ditions  necessary  for  the  cultivation  of  her  great 
staple  were  of  determining  influence  in  the  develop 
ment  of  her  social  institutions. 

Those  who  were  interested  in  the  Virginia  Com 
pany  loudly  proclaimed  that  the  recall  of  the  charter 
would  ruin  the  colony.  But  it  was  population,  rather 
than  corporate  or  royal  control,  that  Virginia  needed, 
and  the  profits  from  tobacco  proved  a  more  powerful 
incentive  to  large  families  and  immigration  than  all 
the  efforts  of  king  or  company.  Within  a  decade 
after  1624  the  number  of  settlers  increased  from 
1232  to  5000.  In  1649  the  population  had  reached 
15,000,  and  in  1670  it  stood  at  38,000.  Land  was 
virtually  free  to  those  who  could  pay  for  the  cost  of 


70  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

clearing,  and  the  rich  soil  of  the  tide-water  bottoms 
assured  an  easy  living  and  the  prospect  of  accumu 
lating  a  competence.  As  the  conditions  of  life  grew 
easier,  the  Virginians,  with  the  true  instinct  of 
frontiersmen,  described  America  as  God's  country, 
abounding  in  every  good  thing :  "  Seldom  any  that 
hath  continued  in  Virginia  any  time  will  or  do  de 
sire  to  live  in  England,  but  put  back  with  what  expe 
dition  they  can."  The  glowing  accounts  which  reached 
England  appealed  to  those  of  every  class  whose  strait 
ened  circumstances  or  unsatisfied  ambitions  disposed 
them  to  a  hazard  of  new  fortunes.  The  yeoman 
farmer,  whose  income  was  small  and  whose  children 
would  always  remain  yeomen;  the  lawyer  and  the 
physician,  the  merchant  and  the  clergyman,  ambi 
tious  to  become  landowners  and  play  the  gentleman ; 
younger  sons  of  the  country  gentry,  for  whom  there 
were  no  assured  avenues  of  advancement :  these  felt 
the  call  of  the  New  World.  Fretted  by  social  re 
strictions,  or  pinched  by  rising  standards  of  living, 
they  saw  Virginia  in  the  light  of  their  ideals,  and 
were  willing  to  exchange  a  safe  but  restricted  posi 
tion  for  the  chance  of  economic  and  social  enfran 
chisement. 

Since  the  main  road  to  wealth  and  influence  in 
Virginia  was  the  raising  of  tobacco,  every  emigrant 
with  capital  to  invest  at  once  became  a  landowner ; 
and  the  conditions  of  tobacco-planting  disposed  him 
to  enlarge  his  estate  as  rapidly  as  possible.  It  is 
true  that  one  advantage  of  tobacco  over  other  prod 
ucts  was  its  high  acreage  value.  But  the  price  ordi 
narily  was  low,  and  many  acres  were  necessary  for 


THE  ENGLISH  MIGRATION  71 

large  net  returns.  Besides,  the  soil  was  soon  ex 
hausted,  so  that  the  successful  planter  found  it 
necessary  to  be  always  acquiring  new  land  in  order 
to  let  the  old  lie  fallow.  It  thus  happened  that,  in 
spite  of  the  cost  of  clearing  and  the  danger  from  the 
Indians,  Virginia  was  not  settled,  as  its  founders 
had  intended,  in  compact  towns  modeled  upon  the 
English  borough,  but  in  widely  separated  plantation 
groups,  stretching  far  up  on  both  sides  of  the  James 
River.  The  average  size  of  patents  granted  before 
1649  was  about  four  hundred  and  fifty  acres;  in  the 
period  between  1666  and  1679  the  average  had 
risen  to  nearly  nine  hundred,  while  there  were  ten 
patents  ranging  from  ten  to  twenty  thousand  acres 
each.  By  1685  a  total  population  not  exceeding  that 
of  the  London  parish  of  Stepney  had  acquired  title 
to  an  area  as  large  as  all  England. 

For  clearing  and  planting  so  large  an  area  much 
unskilled  labor  was  essential.  In  Virginia,  and  in  all 
the  Southern  colonies  with  the  exception  of  North 
Carolina,  there  accordingly  existed,  side  by  side  with 
the  landowning  planter  class,  and  sharply  distinct  from 
it,  a  servile  laboring  class  which  formed  a  large  part 
of  the  total  population.  In  1619,  we  are  told,  "came 
a  Dutch  man  of  war  with  20  negars."  The  ship  was 
probably  English  rather  than  Dutch.  In  either  case 
the  circumstance  marks  the  beginning  of  African 
slavery  in  the  English  continental  colonies ;  but  the 
importation  of  slaves  was  slight  until  the  close  of  the 
century,  and  the  laborers  who  cleared  the  forests  and 
worked  the  fields  were  largely  supplied  by  contract, 
and  were  known  as  "  servants."  The  servant  was  a 


72  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

person  bound  over  for  a  term  of  years  to  the  planter 
who  paid  his  transportation  or  purchased  the  contract 
right  from  its  original  owner.  The  term  of  service 
varied  from  two  to  seven  years,  at  the  expiration  of 
which  the  servant  became  a  freeman.  Ex-servants 
sometimes  migrated  to  other  colonies,  notably  to  North 
Carolina  after  the  foundation  of  that  colony,  or  in 
the  next  century  to  the  up-country  beyond  the  "  fall 
line " ;  but  many  became  renters  or  tenants  on  the 
estates  of  the  large  planters,  or  in  time  became  plant 
ers  themselves.  The  servant  class  included  some  con 
demned  criminals  and  political  offenders,  and  some 
educated  and  cultured  people  who  had  fallen  on  evil 
times ;  but  they  came  mostly  from  the  jails,  the  alms- 
houses,  or  the  London  streets.  They  were  the  unfortu 
nate  and  the  dispossessed  rather  than  the  vicious  — 
men  who  were  vagabonds  because  there  was  nothing 
for  them  to  do,  or  petty  thieves  because  they  were 
starving.  They  were,  none  the  less,  an  inferior  and 
a  servile  class.  The  colonial  law  made  no  great  dis 
tinction  between  the  servant  for  life  and  the  servant 
for  a  term  of  years ;  during  the  term  of  his  indenture, 
the  latter  was  subject  to  his  master,  driven  and 
whipped  like  the  negro  slave  with  whom  he  worked 
and  ate  and  with  whom  he  was  classed. 

Less  clearly  defined  than  the  distinction  between 
the  free  and  the  unfree  was  the  distinction,  which  be 
gan  to  develop  toward  the  middle  of  the  century,  and 
which  was  doubtless  accentuated  by  the  Cavalier 
migration  from  England  during  the  Commonwealth 
period,  between  the  small  and  the  large  landowner. 
The  master  of  a  great  estate,  enjoying  a  certain  lei- 


THE  ENGLISH  MIGRATION  73 

sure  and  exercising  a  political  and  social  influence 
denied  to  the  average  freeman,  was  set  above  the 
mass  of  the  planters  much  as  in  England  the  titled 
nobility  was  set  above  the  gentry.  Of  this  small  but 
important  class,  the  first  William  Byrd  was  a  notable 
example.  Uniting  in  his  ancestry  the  Cavalier  and 
the  Roundhead  traditions,  he  inherited,  before  the 
age  of  twenty,  1800  acres  of  land  and  a  recognized 
social  position  in  the  colony.  Before  his  death  he  had 
built  up  an  estate  of  26,000  acres,  which  his  son,  in 
the  next  century,  increased  to  179,000  acres.  He  was 
at  once  planter,  merchant,  politician,  and  social  leader. 
His  caravans  of  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  pack-horses 
penetrated  regularly  for  many  years  to  the  Cherokee 
country  beyond  the  Blue  Ridge  Mountains.  The  furs 
which  they  brought  back,  together  with  the  products 
of  his  plantation,  were  exported  to  England  and  else 
where  in  payment  for  slaves,  servants,  or  other  com 
modities  which  were  periodically  landed  at  his  private 
wharf  to  be  used  on  his  own  estate  or  retailed  from 
his  general  store  to  the  small  planters  roundabout. 
Before  he  reached  the  age  of  thirty,  Byrd  became, 
and  remained  throughout  his  life,  a  leader  in  his  own 
county  and  in  the  colony  at  large  —  a  colonel  of  mi 
litia,  a  burgess  in  the  assembly,  and  member  of  the 
governor's  council. 

'From  the  middle  of  the  century  Virginia  society 
thus  began  to  take  on  the  character  which  it  retained 
throughout  the  colonial  period.  The  colony  was  pri 
marily  a  rural  and  an  agricultural  community,  com 
bining  in  curious  fashion  the  democratic  spirit  of  the 
frontier  with  the  aristocratic  temper  of  an  older  civil- 


74  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

ization.  The  unit  of  social  organization  was  the  plan 
tation,  which  naturally  tended  to  become,  and  in  the 
case  of  the  larger  plantations  often  became  in  fact, 
relatively  complete  and  self-sufficing  —  a  little  world 
in  itself.  The  planter,  surrounded  by  his  family  arid 
his  servants  and  cut  off  from  intimate  or  frequent 
contact  with  his  neighbors,  producing,  for  the  most 
part  in  abundance,  all  the  necessities  and  many  of 
the  luxuries  of  life,  was  master  of  his  entourage  and 
but  little  dependent  upon  the  outside  world.  Inevit 
ably  the  conditions  of  plantation  life  developed  the 
aristocratic  spirit,  the  sense  of  mastery  and  independ 
ence  which  comes  from  directing  inferiors  in  an  iso 
lated  and  self-sufficing  enterprise. 

Influences  of  environment  were  strengthened  by  the 
traditions  which  the  settlers  had  inherited.  Neither 
planter  nor  servant  came  to  America  with  Utopian 
ideals  of  society  or  government.  It  was  discontent 

not  dissent  that  drove  them  out.    Dissatisfied  with 

-         — — ""----^ 

their  position  in  the  English  social  system,  they  were 
yet  well  content  with  the  system  itself;  a  system 
which  they  were  willing  enough  to  establish  in  the 
New  World  in  the  hope  of  obtaining  in  it  a  more  de 
sirable  position  for  themselves.  And  so  it  happened 
that  the  laborer  and  the  farmer,  the  small  landowner 
and  the  master  of  a  great  estate,  the  clergyman  and 
the  high  official,  were  disposed  to  take  as  a  matter 
of  course  the  position  which  custom  assigned  them, 
and  in  that  position  to  exercise  the  authority  and 
render  the  obedience  which  was  proper  to  it. 

Tradition  and  environment  thus  conspired  to  estab 
lish  a  government  in  which  initiative  and  leadership 


THE  ENGLISH  MIGRATION  75 

fell  to  the  great  planters,  while  the  mass  of  the  free 
men  exercised  a  restrained  and  limited  supervision. 
It  was  a  happy  accident,  rather  than  any  strong  popu 
lar  demand,  that  gave  to  Virginia  an  elected  chamber. 
Sir  Edwin  Sandys  and  the  Earl  of  Southampton, 
who  gained  control  of  the  Virginia  Company  in  1618, 
hoped  to  put  the  enterprise  on  a  paying  basis  by  lav 
ish  land  grants  and  liberal  concessions  in  respect  to 
religious  and  political  liberty.  Governor  Yeardly  was 
accordingly  sent  out  in  1619  with  instructions  to  call 
together  "  two  Burgesses  from  each  Plantation,  freely 
to  be  elected  by  the  inhabitants  thereof."  In  June  of 
the  same  year  twenty-two  burgesses,  representing 
eleven  districts,  together  with  the  governor  and 
council,  assembled  in  the  church  at  Jamestown  and 
inaugurated  representative  government  in  Virginia 
by  passing  a  body  of  laws  in  which  the  customs  of 
England  were  adapted  to  the  conditions  of  a  frontier 
community.  After  the  dissolution  of  the  company  in 
1624  the  appointment  of  the  governor  and  council 
vested  in  the  Crown,  but  the  House  of  Burgesses, 
elected  at  first  by  the  freemen,  but  after  the  Kestora- 
tion  on  the  basis  of  a  freehold  test,  was  continued. 
From  the  first  the  assembly,  filled  by  planters,  exer 
cised  a  beneficial  influence  in  giving  a  practical  char 
acter  to  the  laws  of  the  province;  while  on  certain 
occasions,  and  notably  during  the  period  of  the  Com 
monwealth,  it  was  the  dominant  influence  in  the 
government  of  the  colony. 

But  for  the  most  part  the  assembly  was  the  instru 
ment  rather  than  the  source  of  power.  The  directing 
influence  was  usually  in  the  hands  of  the  great  planter 


76  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

who  combined  the  functions  of  merchant  and  country 
gentleman,  lawyer  and  politician  and  social  leader. 
His  knowledge  of  law  and  his  familiarity  with  affairs, 
his  social  connection  and  influence,  his  greater  leisure, 
the  traditional  authority  which  hung  about  his  posi 
tion,  all  disposed  the  small  planters  to  accept  his  ini 
tiative  and  abide  by  his  decisions.  It  was  difficult  to 
defeat  his  candidate  for  the  burgesses;  difficult  for 
the  elected  burgess  not  to  defer  to  his  opinion.  And 
if  the  great  planters  were  influential  among  the  bur 
gesses,  they  were  predominant  in  the  council.  The 
home  Government  expected  the  governor  to  manage 
the  affairs  of  the  colony  by  gathering  to  his  support 
the  most  wealthy  and  influential  men  in  it.  Accord 
ingly,  the  great  planters  were  customarily  appointed 
to  the  local  offices  and  to  the  council.  Generally 
speaking,  the  governor  and  the  great  planters  estab 
lished  a  community  of  interest  on  an  exchange  of 
favors.  The  small  group  of  men  in  the  council,  re 
lated  by  marriage,  ambitious,  shrewd,  and  pushing, 
already  wealthy  or  bound  to  become  so,  supported 
with  reasonable  loyalty  the  royal  interests,  and  found 
their  reward  in  exploiting,  through  the  political  ma 
chinery  which  they  controlled,  the  resources  of  the 
colony  for  their  own  profit.  This  compact  was  the 
basis  of  the  long  regime  of  Berkeley.  But  the  gover 
nor  was  made  aware  of  the  source  of  his  strength 
when  he  trespassed  upon  the  preserves  of  the  oligarchy 
which  supported  him.  His  attempt  to  control  the 
Indian  trade  drove  men  like  Colonel  Byrd  over  to 
the  side  of  Bacon,  and  the  authority  of  the  governor 
collapsed  like  a  pricked  balloon. 


THE  ENGLISH  MIGRATION  J7> 

Of  this  oligarchy  of  politician-planters,  Colonel 
Byrd  was  indeed  the  most  notable.  Already  wealthy 
and  influential,  in  1687  he  went  to  London  and 
secured,  through  the  favor  of  William  Blathwayt, 
the  office  of  receiver-general  of  the  customs,  to  which 
was  attached  the  office  of  escheator  ;  offices,  among  the 
most  important  in  the  colony,  which  he  held  until  his 
death.  It  was  the  duty  of  the  receiver  to  receive  the 
quit-rents,  and  to  receive  them,  at  the  option  of  the 
taxpayer,  in  tobacco  in  exchange  for  certificates  at 
the  rate  of  about  eight  shillings  per  hundredweight. 
Tobacco  so  received  was  stored  in  warehouses,  and 
sold  at  the  close  of  the  year  by  the  receiver-general 
for  the  benefit  of  the  customs.  The  tobacco  offered 
for  the  quit-rents  was  naturally  of  inferior  quality. 
Such  as  it  was,  the  king  favored  selling  it  at  auction. 
But  the  Virginia  assembly  preferred  to  have  the 
receiver  dispose  of  it  by  "  private  arrangement " ; 
and  in  fact  Colonel  Byrd  found  it  convenient  to 
make  such  "  private  arrangements  "  with  burgesses 
or  members  of  the  council,  who  sometimes  paid  as 
much  as  six  shillings  for  tobacco  which  would  bring 
ten  or  twelve  in  the  open  market. 

Members  of  the  legislature  who  profited  by  such 
practices  were  doubtless  willing  to  stretch  a  point  in 
favor  of  the  receiver  of  the  customs.  In  1679,  be 
fore  he  had  become  receiver,  Colonel  Byrd  was  able 
to  obtain  from  the  assembly,  on  condition  of  main 
taining  fifty  armed  men  to  repel  Indian  attacks  on 
the  frontier,  a  grant  of  ten  thousand  acres  at  the 
Falls  extending  on  both  sides  of  the  James  River. 
The  grant  was  disallowed  in  England,  but  other 


78  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

grants  of  great  value  were  obtained  with  little  dif 
ficulty.  Patents  were  easily  obtained,  but  they  did 
not  become  effective  until  the  land  was  "  settled  " 
by  clearing  and  cultivating  a  minimum  tract.  For  a 
poor  man  this  was  the  chief  obstacle  to  acquiring  a 
great  estate  ;  but  a  rich  man  was  often  able  to  avoid 
it  altogether.  In  1688,  Byrd  secured  a  patent  for 
3313  acres.  He  failed  to  "settle"  it  and  the  title 
lapsed.  But  the  land  could  not  be  granted  again 
until  the  lapse  of  title  was  officially  declared  in  the 
office  of  the  escheator.  Colonel  Byrd  was  fortunately 
escheator  as  well  as  receiver,  and  the  lapse  of  his 
own  title  was  not  declared  until  1701,  when  the  same 
tract  was  immediately  repatented  to  Nathaniel  Har 
rison,  who  straightway  transferred  it  to  his  neighbor 
and  very  good  friend,  the  original  patentee.  In  like 
manner  the  colonel  preempted  5644  acres  of  land, 
which  he  held  without  improvement  for  ten  years 
when  it  was  transferred  to  his  son. 

The  aristocracy,  of  which  Colonel  Byrd  was  a 
shining  light,  nevertheless  held  by  a  somewhat  pre 
carious  tenure.  The  crude  and  primitive  conditions 
of  the  wilderness,  restricting  both  the  occupations 
and  the  diversions  of  life  within  narrow  limits,  in 
evitably  ran  the  thoughts  of  men  in  much  the  same 
mould.  The  routine  of  work  and  pleasure  was  much 
the  same  on  the  great  plantation  as  on  the  small : 
clearing  and  planting,  spinning  and  weaving,  dancing 
and  horse-racing,  neighborly  hospitality  which  was 
generous  and  sincere  because  the  opportunity  to  exer 
cise  it  was  rare,  attendance  at  church  or  at  the  county 
court,  at  elections,  at  the  annual  muster  —  it  was  a 


THE  ENGLISH  MIGRATION  79 

range  of  activities  too  limited  to  permit  of  any  deep- 
seated  sense  of  difference  between  man  and  man. 

And,  indeed,  the  main  basis  of  distinction  in  this 
new  world  was  a  purely  external  one  —  the  posses 
sion  of  wealth ;  and  wealth  was  in  no  unreal  sense 
the  bequest  of  nature  to  capacity.  Initiative  and  in 
dustry,  rather  than  the  dead  hand  of  custom,  marked 
a  man  for  distinction  and  preferment,  It  was  the 
land  of  opportunity  where  the  servant  could  become 
the  farmer,  the  farmer  a  planter,  where  the  planter, 
acquiring  by  skill  or  happy  chance  a  great  estate, 
thereby  entered  in  with  the  political  and  social 
grandees.  There  were  classes  but  no  castes ;  not  birth 
or  title,  but  individual  enterprise  determined  rank 
and  influence.  And  in  an  undeveloped  country  the 
possession  of  a  great  estate  was  not  a  social  griev 
ance,  but  an  evidence  of  success  in  the  perennial 
contest  with  nature,  the  measure  of  personal  prowess 
and  a  test  of  civic  virtue.  The  enrichment  of  Colo 
nel  Byrd,  even  by  ways  that  were  devious,  was  viewed 
with  complacence  by  his  neighbors  so  long  as  it  harmed 
them  not.  Yet  the  submission  of  the  small  to  the 
great  planter  was  a  convenience  rather  than  a  neces 
sity.  The  wilderness,  with  the  Indian  as  a  part  of  it, 
developed  a  crude  and  a  ruthless  spirit,  but  never  a 
cringing  or  a  submissive  one.  The  gentleman  and 
the  magistrate  were  deferred  to,  but  neither  was  re 
garded  as  sacrosanct;  and  when,  in  the  regime  of 
Berkeley,  special  privilege  in  alliance  with  official 
corruption  seemed  to  be  narrowing  the  chances  of 
the  common  man,  the  insurgent  spirit  of  frontier 
democracy,  denying  the  validity  of  distinctions  and 


80  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

demanding  fair  play,  found  militant  expression  in 
Bacon's  Rebellion.  The  episode  was  an  early  instance 
of  that  struggle  between  rich  and  poor,  between  ex 
ploiter  and  exploited,  of  that  stubborn  insistence 
upon  equal  opportunity  which  have  so  often  charac 
terized  the  more  decisive  periods  of  American  history. 

II 

The  origin  of  New  England  is  inseparably  con 
nected  with  the  Protestant  Reformation,  that  many- 
sided  movement  of  which  no  formula  is  adequate  to 
convey  the  full  meaning.  From  one  point  of  view  it 
was  the  nationalization  of  the  Church,  the  subjection 
of  the  ecclesiastical  to  the  lay  power.  In  the  end  the 
principle  of  territorial  sovereignty  everywhere  pre 
vailed,  in  Catholic  no  less  than  in  Protestant  coun 
tries  :  whether  Lutheran  or  Gallican  or  Anglican, 
whether  completely  separated  from  Rome  or  retain 
ing  a  spiritual  communion  with  it,  the  Church  sub 
mitted  to  the  principle  of  cujus  regio  ejus  religio, 
and  became  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  kings  for 
erecting  the  lay  and  territorial  absolutism  on  the 
ruins  of  the  universal  church-state.  James  I  spoke 
for  all  his  kind  when  he  cried  out,  "  No  Bishop  no 
King ! "  The  lay  prince  wished  not  to  destroy  the 
Church,  but  to  use  it;  the  sum  of  his  purpose  was 
to  transfer  the  ultimate  authority  in  conduct  and 
thought  from  the  divinely  appointed  priest  to  the 
divinely  appointed  king. 

But  the  Reformation  was  far  more  than  resistance 
to  Rome.  It  did  not  cease  when  the  king  triumphed 
over  the  Pope.  The  "  dissidence  of  dissent  and  the 


THE  ENGLISH  MIGRATION  81 

Protestantism  of  the  Protestant  religion  "  was  as  in 
compatible  with  royal  as  with  priestly  authority.  In 
this  "  reformation  of  the  Reformation"  the  strength 
of  the  movement  was  everywhere  in  the  towns.  It 
was  generally  true,  and  nowhere  more  so  than  in 
England,  that  Protestantism  was  the  result  of  a 
middle-class  revolt  against  the  existing  regime,  a 
denial  of  established  standards  in  politics  and  moral 
ity,  the  determined  attempt  to  effect  a  trans  valua 
tion  of  all  customary  values. 

The  quarrel  of  the  middle-class  man  with  the 
world  as  he  found  it  was  of  long  standing.  In  the 
feudal-ecclesiastical  structure,  fairly  complete  in 
the  eleventh  century  and  to  outward  seeming  still 

f  O 

intact  in  the  fifteenth,  there  was  no  prepared  niche 
for  the  bourgeois.  The  peasant  to  obey  and  serve ; 
the  noble  to  fight  and  rule  ;  the  priest  to  instruct  and 
pray :  —  these,  all  in  their  different  ways  respected 
and  respectable  careers,  completed  the  sum  of  God's 
purpose  in  arranging  the  occupations  of  men.  Yet 
into  this  trinity  the  bourgeois  had  intruded  his  un 
welcome  presence.  The  secret  of  his  rise  was  the  skill 
of  his  hand  to  fashion  material  things,  and  his  prac 
tical  intelligence  to  care  for  them.  Neither  personal 
service  nor  personal  prowess  was  th'e  source  of  his 
power.  Untouched  by  the  principle  of  homage  or  of 
noblesse  oblige,  he  commanded,  or  was  himself  com 
manded,  through  the  medium  of  material  values.  He 
put  money  in  his  purse  because  it  was  the  measure 
of  his  independence,  the  symbol  of  his  worth ;  and 
he  kept  it  there,  guarding  it  as  the  priest  guarded 
his  faith  or  the  noble  his  honor.  Long  occupation 


82  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

with  the  concrete  world  of  affairs  had  given  his  mind 
a  peculiar  quality ;  his  intelligence  was  direct  and 
firm,  his  thinking  clear  and  dry,  without  atmosphere, 
unrelieved  by  poetic  imagination  or  the  play  of  fancy. 

Set  apart  by  occupation  and  temperament,  the 
middle-class  man  had  little  in  common  with  either 
the  servile  or  the  ruling  class  ;  little  in  common 
with  the  noble  who  despised  his  birth,  ridiculed  his 
manners,  envied  his  wealth;  little  with  the  priest 
who  found  him  too  rigid,  too  intelligent,  too  reserved 
with  his  money  and  his  soul  to  be  a  good  son  of  the 
Church ;  little  with  the  peasant  who  renounced  him 
as  a  renegade  or  ignored  him  as  a  parvenu.  All 
these  benefits  the  bourgeois  returned  in  full  measure, 
despising  the  peasant  for  his  ignorance  and  servility, 
resenting  the  inquisitiveness  of  the  clergy  and  the 
condescension  of  the  nobility,  at  the  same  time  that 
he  aspired  to  the  power  of  the  one  and  the  superior 
position  of  the  other.  And  from  the  outside  world 
the  bourgeois  had  secured  a  measure  of  protection. 
With  his  money  he  had  purchased  corporate  inde 
pendence  and  enfranchisement  from  feudal  obliga 
tion.  The  gild,  at  once  an  industrial  enterprise,  a 
religious  association,  and  a  charitable  foundation, 
bound  him  to  his  fellows  and  rounded  out  his  life. 

At  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century  many  circum 
stances  had  contributed  to  identify  the  interests  of 
the  small  country  gentry  with  those  of  the  moder 
ately  well-to-do  townsman,  and  to  set  them  both  in 
opposition  to  the  higher  nobility  and  the  wealthier 
merchants  and  promoters.  The  control  of  trade  was 
passing  from  the  master  merchant  to  the  capitalist, 


THE  ENGLISH  MIGRATION  83 

from  the  city  to  the  state.  Powerful  financial  mo 
nopolists  like  the  Fuggers  and  the  Welsers,  in  alli 
ance  with  the  territorial  prince  or  the  national 
government,  were  undermining  the  industrial  inde 
pendence  of  town  and  gild.  Exactions  of  State  and 
Church  were  increasing.  The  growing  extravagance 
and  immorality  of  the  wealthy,  both  burgher  and 
noble,  was  matched  by  the  worldliness  of  the  upper 
clergy,  and  accompanied  by  the  decay  of  spiritual 
interests,  the  accentuation  of  ritual  and  ceremony, 
and  increased  reliance  upon  external  and  formal 
works  as  sufficient  for  salvation.  From  this  world  of 
the  high-placed  favorites  of  fortune,  where  corrup 
tion  flourished  unashamed  and  power  was  too  often 
exercised  without  a  redeeming  sense  of  obligation, 
the  middle  class  was  already  withdrawing  at  the 
close  of  the  fifteenth  century.  The  townsmen  in  Ger 
many  found  satisfaction  for  their  spiritual  and  intel 
lectual  interests  in  reviving  the  religious  activities 
of  the  gilds,  and  in  the  formation  of  lay  religious 
societies  in  which  a  simplified  form  of  worship  was 
accompanied  by  study  of  the  Bible  and  the  preach 
ing  of  the  unworldly  virtues  of  upright  living.  It 
was  this  separation  of  the  bourgeois  from  the  world 
in  which  he  lived  that  constitutes  the  first  protest, 
the  beginning  of  the  Protestant  movement. 

Ideal  constructions  are  doubtless  the  psychic  pre 
cipitates  of  social  experience,  and  the  Protestant 
theory  was  but  the  reasoned  expression  of  the  middle- 
class  state  of  mind.  Thwarted  by  the  existing  world 
of  fact,  the  leaders  employed  their  practical  and  dex 
terous  intelligence  to  create  a  new  world  of  sem- 


84  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

blance,  a  world  of  the  spirit,  in  which  the  way  was 
illumined  by  the  light  of  reason,  and  the  individual 
rather  than  the  social  conscience  gave  the  sense  of 
right  direction.  Material  for  such  a  philosophy  was 
ready  to  hand.  The  practice  and  the  thinking  of  the 
apostolic  churches  had  been  newly  discovered  by  the 
study  of  the  secular  and  the  sacred  past ;  and  the  es 
sence  of  all  Protestant  thinking  was  implied  in  the 
phrase  in  which  Luther  embodied  the  teaching  of  St. 
Paul :  "  Good  works  do  not  make  the  good  man,  but 
the  good  man  does  good  works."  Not  the  conven 
tional  judgments  of  society,  expressed  through  the 
commands  of  Church  or  State,  but  the  individual 
conscience,  justified  by  faith  in  God's  purpose,  de 
termines  a  man's  merit.  St.  Augustine's  ideal  City 
of  God  was  thus  once  more  set  over  against  the  visi 
ble  secular  world  of  man.  Into  this  intangible  com 
munity,  a  house  not  made  with  hands,  the  elect  and 
the  select  withdrew  themselves,  abiding  there  as  in  a 
refuge,  untouched  by  the  corruptions  of  a  spotted 
world,  seeking  with  humility  the  will  of  God  and 
submitting  with  all  the  pride  of  conscious  merit  to 
his  law. 

As  the  middle-class  experience  implied  the  Pro 
testant  theory  of  religion,  it  implied  the  Puritan 
conception  of  morals  and  conduct.  Puritanism  origi 
nated  in  the  towns  for  the  same  reason  that  it  lin 
gers  in  the  country ;  it  was  formerly  the  townsman 
rather  than  the  countryman  whose  ideas  and  manner 
of  living  stamped  him  as  peculiar.  The  spiritual  and 
social  isolation  of  the  townsman  is  therefore  the 
source  of  the  outward  impassiveness  of  the  Puritan, 


THE  ENGLISH  MIGRATION  85 

as  well  as  of  the  intensity  of  his  inner  experience : 
the  continued  impact  of  noble  or  priestly  contempt 
had  crusted  his  nature  with  a  manner  that  was  rigid 
and  resistant  and  undemonstrative,  beneath  which 
smouldered  the  explosive  forces  of  thwarted  ambi 
tion  and  the  sense  of  unrecognized  intellectual  and 
moral  excellence.  Conscious  of  a  worth  which  society 
ignored,  he  transformed  his  qualities  into  virtues, 
and  erected  his  virtures  into  social  standards  of 
value.  Prudence  and  economy,  restraint  of  manner, 
denial  of  the  sensuous  and  the  sensual  appeal,  re 
serve  of  soul,  the  unmoved  endurance  of  the  pricks 
of  fortune  —  these  became  the  virtues  of  the  Puri 
tan  because  they  were  not  the  virtues  of  the  world 
which  despised  him :  by  these  self -erected  standards 
he  justified  himself  and  passed  judgment  on  the  so 
ciety  in  which  he  felt  himself  an  alien  and  a  stranger. 
Opposition  was  therefore  but  fuel  to  the  Puritan 
flame.  Every  persecution  of  society  or  obstacle  of 
nature  encountered  in  the  endeavor  to  withdraw  from 
the  world  was  a  confirmation  of  its  corruption,  a  de 
vice  of  the  devil  to  tempt  him  astray,  or  God's  wise 
method  of  testing  his  faith.  To  persevere  was  the 
very  proof  of  his  election,  the  sure  evidence  of  right 
thinking.  The  doctrine  of  eternal  torment  in  hell, 
said  Jonathan  Edwards,  used  to  appear  "  like  a  hor 
rible  doctrine  to  me.  I  remember  very  well  when  I 
seemed  convinced,  and  fully  satisfied,  but  never  could 
give  an  account  how,  or  by  what  means  I  was  thus 
convinced."  The  very  painfulness  of  the  idea  was 
doubtless  what  induced  him  to  accept  it.  It  was  not 
the  truth  of  the  doctrine  convincing  his  intellect, 


86  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

but  the  discipline  of  the  will  involved  in  vanquish 
ing  the  horror  of  it,  that  gave  him  peace ;  so  that 
in  the  end  it  seemed  to  him,  not  so  much  true,  but 
"  exceeding  pleasant,  bright,  and  sweet."  St.  Au 
gustine  furnished  us  one  of  the  keys  to  Puritanism 
when  he  said:  "  No  man  loves  what  he  endures,  but 
he  may  love  to  endure."  The  Puritan  loved  to  endure. 
To  expect  resistance  and  to  meet  it  unmoved  ;  to  wel 
come  calumny  and  reviling  with  a  steadfast  mind ; 
to  transform  a  hostile  verdict  of  the  majority  into  an 
unconscious  award  of  merit :  —  such  was  the  Puritan 
temper  in  its  most  distinguished  representatives. 

Ill 

In  England  the  Puritan  temper  was  given  its  ef 
fective  edge  during  the  latter  years  of  Elizabeth  and 
the  reigns  of  the  first  Stuarts.  The  Armada  was 
scarcely  destroyed  before  the  queen  assumed  a  less 
complaisant  attitude  toward  dissent.  James  I  warned 
the  clergy  at  Hampden  Court  that  he  would  make 
them  conform  or  harry  them  out  of  the  land.  The 
third  decade  of  the  century  witnessed  the  triumph 
of  Anti-Christ  on  every  hand :  in  Germany  the  suc 
cess  of  imperial  arms  was  crowned  by  the  Edict  of 
Restitution ;  with  the  capture  of  Rochelle,  the  Hugue 
nots  in  France  lost  their  towns  of  refuge  and  found 
themselves  at  the  mercy  of  the  state ;  and  in  England 
itself  the  first  Charles,  more  absolutist  and  more 
Catholic  than  his  father,  was  thought  to  aim  at  noth 
ing  less  than  the  ruin  of  Parliament  and  the  resto 
ration  of  the  Roman  religion.  Under  the  stress  of 
opposition  there  was  accordingly  a  marked  accentu- 


THE  ENGLISH  MIGRATION  87 

ation  of  the  Puritan  and  the  Separatist  spirit.  To 
Nonconformist  and  Independent  alike  the  truth  be 
came  more  clear  the  more  it  was  traduced  and  ma 
ligned.  Year  by  year  there  was  a  deepening  sense 
of  being  in  the  world  but  not  of  it ;  and  to  those  who 
were  already  spiritual  exiles,  the  idea  of  removing 
to  America  came  to  seem  but  the  outward  expression 
of  an  inner  fact :  "  All  the  churches  of  Europe  have 
been  brought  under  desolation ;  it  may  be  feared  that 
the  like  judgements  are  coming  upon  us ;  and  who 
knows  but  God  hath  provided  this  place  to  be  a  ref 
uge  for  many,  whom  he  meanes  to  save  out  of  the 
generall  callamitie." 

It  was  not  the  Puritan  Nonconformists  who  first 
sought  refuge  on  American  shores,  but  a  less  aggres 
sive  people,  who  were  called  Brownists  in  derision, 
but  who  called  themselves  Separatists.  Robert  Browne 
first  formulated  the  doctrines  of  the  sect ;  but  its 
origin,  and  the  reasons  for  its  persistence  in  the  face 
of  bitter  persecution,  are  not  altogether  clear.  Poor 
in  purse  and  feeble  in  numbers,  Separatism  found 
adherents  chiefly  in  London  and  Norfolk,  and  among 
the  lower  classes  of  artisans  and  countrymen.  It  was 
in  London  and  Norfolk  that  many  thousand  Dutch 
refugees  found  homes  during  the  reign  of  Elizabeth; 
and  it  was  in  Norfolk  that  a  kind  of  unofficial,  lay 
religion  had  been  for  many  decades  a  marked  feature 
of  craft  gild  activities.  Dutch  influence  and  the  prac 
tice  of  the  gilds  may  have  furnished  a  fruitful  soil 
for  the  propagation  of  Separatism ;  but  the  leaders 
who  formulated  its  doctrines  and  ideals  were  mainly 
educated  Englishmen,  graduates  of  Cambridge  many 


88  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

of  them,  whose  deliberate  thinking  carried  them  from 
Anglicanism  to  Nonconformity,  and  from  Noncon 
formity  to  Separatism.  Such  was  Robert  Browne  the 
founder,  John  Greenwood,  Henry  Barrowe,  and  John 
Penry;  and  such  were  the  later  leaders,  William 
Brewster  and  John  Robinson.  These  men,  like  the 
Puritans,  were  Calvinistic  in  doctrine  ;  like  the  Puri 
tans,  they  held  that  true  Christians  formed  an  ideal 
commonwealth,  whose  ruler  Christ  was,  and  whose 
law  was  the  Bible ;  like  the  Puritans,  they  believed 
that  the  test  of  the  true  Christian  was  an  inner  spirit 
ual  condition  bearing  fruit  in  right  living,  rather  than 
external  conformity  to  established  custom.  But  the 
Separatist  was  at  once  less  aggressive  and  more  rad 
ical  than  the  Puritan  Nonconformist.  Desiring  tol 
eration  for  himself,  he  accorded  it  to  others  ;  submit 
ting  to  persecution,  he  refused  to  practice  it ;  and 
convinced  that  no  purification  of  the  Established 
Church  could  make  it  the  true  house  of  God,  his 
cardinal  doctrine  was  the  separation  of  the  spiritual 
and  the  temporal  commonwealths.  It  was  the  merit 
of  the  Separatist  to  have  caught  that  inspiring  vision 
which  was  denied  to  most  Protestant  sects  —  the 
vision  of  the  day  when  it  belongeth  not  to  the  magis 
trate  "  to  compell  religion,  to  plant  churches  by  power, 
and  to  force  a  submission  to  Ecclesiasticall  Govern 
ment  by  lawes  and  penalties." 

When  the  seventeenth  century  opened,  exile  for 
opinion's  sake  was  no  new  thing  for  this  despised  and 
persecuted  sect ;  and  the  little  Separatist  congrega 
tion  of  Scrooby  which  John  Robinson  led  out  of 
England  in  1608  had  doubtless  read  in  Foxe's  Book 


THE  ENGLISH  MIGRATION  89 

of  Martyrs  of  the  many  early  Protestants  who  had 
removed  in  the  days  of  Mary  to  live  unmolested  at 
Basel  or  Geneva.  They  themselves  could  endure  per 
secution  with  a  steadfast  heart.  But  they  were  un 
able  to  prevail  against  the  "  errors,  heresies,  and 
wonderful  dissentions  "  which  the  devil  had  begun  to 
sow  even  among  the  elect,  and  so  crossed  to  Holland 
and  settled  in  Amsterdam.  In  Amsterdam  they  were, 
indeed,  free  from  persecution  ;  but  the  conditions  of 
life  were  unfamiliar  there,  and  the  dissensions  more 
bitter  even  than  in  England.  Therefore  they  moved 
on  to  Leyden,  where  they  were  joined  by  other  Eng 
lish  congregations,  and  where  they  remained,  "  knit 
together  as  a  body  in  the  most  strict  and  sacred  bond 
and  covenant  of  the  Lord."  Yet  even  there  the  world 
compassed  them  about  and  was  not  to  be  resisted. 
Of  the  grinding  toil  which  made  them  old  before 
their  time  they  could  not  complain  ;  but  their  chil 
dren,  associating  with  foreigners  and  disposed  to 
marry  with  them,  were  losing  their  language  and 
departing  from  their  early  instruction  ;  while  the  re 
newal  of  the  war  with  Spain  threatened  the  liberty 
they  enjoyed  in  their  new  home.  To  preserve  the 
true  faith  intact,  it  was  necessary  to  withdraw  still 
more  completely  from  the  world ;  and  they  turned 
to  America  where  they  would  be  as  isolated  in  fact 
as  they  were  in  idea.  And  so  they  "  left  that  goodly 
and  pleasant  citie,  which  had  been  their  resting  place 
near  12  years ;  but  they  knew  they  were  pilgrimes, 
and  looked  not  much  upon  these  things,  but  lift  up 
their  eyes  to  the  heavens,  their  dearest  countrie,  and 
quieted  their  spirits." 


90  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

Of  many  attempts  to  withdraw  from  the  corrup 
tions  of  a  complex  world  of  fact  in  order  to  dwell  in 
spiritual  peace  according  to  the  simple  law  of  God 
or  nature,  few  are  more  interesting  than  that  which 
issued  in  the  little  colony  of  Plymouth.  But  in  point 
of  numbers,  and  in  respect  to  the  storm  and  stress 
of  conflicting  ideals  which  produce  great  events, 
Plymouth  was  soon  eclipsed  by  Massachusetts  Bay. 
The  repressive  measures  of  Elizabeth  and  James  I 
bore  less  heavily  011  the  Nonconformist  than  on  the 
Separatist ;  but  during  the  early  years  of  Charles 
the  activities  of  the  former  became  the  special  object 
of  royal  displeasure.  And  from  the  point  of  view  of 
the  king  the  Nonconformist  who  wished  to  remain 
in  the  Church  was,  indeed,  more  dangerous  than  the 
Separatist  who  wished  to  get  out  of  it.  The  great 
majority  of  the  Puritans  were  still  of  the  former 
type.  Men  like  Cotton  and  Winthrop,  less  spiritual 
and  more  practical,  less  unworldly  and  more  resist 
ant,  than  men  like  Robinson  and  Bradford,  were  not 
prepared  to  renounce  the  land  of  their  birth  without 
a  struggle.  They  wished  rather  to  get  control  of  the 
Government  in  order  that  their  own  ideas  might  pre 
vail,  and  were  more  disposed  to  purify  a  corrupt  so 
ciety  by  act  of  Parliament  than  by  passive  renuncia 
tion  and  unobtrusive  example. 

And  in  the  third  decade  of  the  century  the  Puri 
tans  were  well  on  the  way  to  the  control  of  Church 
and  Parliament.  All  over  England  they  were  send 
ing  to  Westminster  men  of  their  own  stubborn  tem 
per  for  whom  political  and  religious  liberty  were  but 
two  sides  of  the  same  shield.  They  were  buying  up 


THE  ENGLISH  MIGRATION  91 

impropriated  tithes  and  gaining  control  of  appoint 
ments  to  livings.  In  hundreds  of  parishes  the  con 
gregations  remained  outside  while  the  official  reader 
intoned  the  service  from  the  Prayer  Book,  and  then 
entered  to  hear  their  chosen  minister  preach  doctrines 
that  boded  ill  to  the  cause  of  royal  authority.  To  the 
over-sanguine  it  might  have  seemed  that  episcopacy 
was  beginning  to  break  down  into  Congregationalism, 
and  Congregationalism  laying  the  foundation  for  con 
trol  of  Parliament,  when  Charles  I,  in  March,  1629, 
pronounced  the  famous  dissolution  that  marked  the 
beginning  of  his  personal  rule.  It  was  then  that  many 
Nonconformists,  despairing  of  success  at  home,  began 
to  look  to  America  as  God's  appointed  refuge  "  from 
the  generall  callamitie " ;  and  the  ten  years  from 
1630  to  1640,  during  which  the  king  endeavored 
with  the  aid  of  Wentworth  to  dispense  with  Parlia 
ment,  and  with  the  aid  of  Laud  to  crush  out  Non 
conformity,  is  precisely  the  period  of  the  great  Puri 
tan  migration  to  New  England. 

In  the  summer  of  that  very  year  1629  a  group  of 
Nonconformists,  under  the  lead  of  John  Winthrop, 
a  gentleman  of  Suffolk  whose  estate  was  becoming 
inadequate  to  his  customary  manner  of  living,  con 
vinced  themselves  that  they  could  best  serve  God  by 
renouncing  the  struggle  against  king  and  bishop  in 
order  to  set  up  in  America  a  "  due  form  of  Govern 
ment  both  civil  and  ecclesiastical."  And  for  such  an 
enterprise  it  seemed  that  the  way  had  been  miracu 
lously  prepared.  In  March,  1628,  John  Endicott  and 
five  associates  had  obtained  from  the  New  England 
Council  a  grant  of  land  extending  from  a  point 


92  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

three  miles  north  of  the  Merrimac  River  to  three 
miles  south  of  the  Charles,  and  westward  from  the 
Atlantic  as  far  as  the  South  Sea.  The  enterprise  had 
in  the  mean  time  been  joined  by  many  Nonconform 
ists,  and  in  1629  the  associates  obtained  from  the 
king  a  charter  which  confirmed  their  rights  to  the 
land,  and  in  addition  authorized  them,  under  the  title 
of  "  The  Governor  and  Company  of  Massachusetts 
Bay,"  to  establish  and  govern  colonies  within  the  lim 
its  of  their  jurisdiction.  All  the  powers  of  the  com 
pany  were  intrusted  to  a  governor,  deputy-governor, 
and  board  of  eighteen  assistants,  with  the  final  au 
thority  in  the  freemen  assembled  in  general  court. 
The  officers  were  elected  by  the  freemen  of  the  com 
pany,  and  freemen  were  admitted  to  the  company  by 
the  officers.  The  charter  originally  provided  for  the 
"  election  of  the  Governor  and  officers  here  in  Eng 
land  "  ;  but  before  it  passed  the  seals  the  phrase  was 
omitted :  "  With  much  difficulty, "  says  *  Winthrop, 
"we  got  it  recinded."  The  change  was  of  vital  im 
portance  for  those  who  were  preparing  to  set  up,  as 
free  as  possible  from  all  outside  authority,  a  "  due 
form  of  Government  both  civil  and  ecclesiastical." 
Since  the  charter  did  not  require  the  company's  elec 
tions  to  be  held  in  England,  the  freemen  and  officers 
had  but  to  remove  to  America  to  transform  a  com 
mercial  corporation  into  a  self-governing  colony. 

With  this  end  in  view,  the  offices  of  the  company 
were  transferred  to  those  who  signified  their  inten 
tion  of  removing.  In  March,  1630,  all  arrangements 
were  completed,  and  over  a  thousand  people,  includ 
ing  the  governor  and  officers  of  the  company,  left 


THE  ENGLISH  MIGRATION  93 

England.  When  they  landed  at  Salem  in  June  the 
prospect  was  so  disheartening  that  some  two  hun 
dred  returned  in  the  ships  that  brought  them  out; 
and  of  those  who  went  on  to  Boston  Harbor  two 
hundred  died  before  December.  The  unfavorable  re 
ports  of  those  who  returned  discouraged  migration  for 
many  months;  but  for  ten  years  after  1632  the  re 
pressive  measures  of  Laud  and  Wentworth  produced 
a  veritable  exodus,  so  that  in  1643  the  population 
of  Massachusetts  Bay  is  estimated  to  have  been  not 
less  than  sixteen  thousand. 

The  leaders  of  the  migration  were  substantial  and 
hard-headed  laymen  like  Winthrop  and  Dudley, 
and  able  and  conscientious  clergymen  such  as  Cot 
ton,  Norton  and  Wilson,  Davenport,  Thomas  Hooker, 
and  Richard  Mather.  During  the  eclipse  of  Parlia 
ment  and  the  Country  party  in  England,  the  former 
found  many  avenues  of  advancement  closed,  while 
their  estates,  even  when  carefully  husbanded,  would 
no  longer  permit  them,  as  Winthrop  said,  to  "  keep 
sail  with  their  equals."  The  latter,  excluded  by  their 
Puritan  and  evangelical  convictions  from  the  profes 
sion  for  which  they  were  trained,  turned  to  America 
as  the  most  inviting  field  for  service  among  the  elect 
of  God.  They  were  men  of  ability  and  conviction  — 
"  a  chosen  company  of  men,  picked  out  ...  by  no 
human  contrivance,  but  by  a  strange  contrivance  of 
God,"  to  be  the  leaders  of  a  chosen  people. 

Yet  the  Puritan  colony  was  not  made  up  of  lead 
ers.  In  firm  intelligence,  in  clearly  realized  concep 
tions  of  Church  and  State,  in  moral  fervor  and  spir 
itual  exaltation,  men  like  Winthrop  and  Davenport 


94  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

were  far  removed  from  the  rank  and  file.  The  great 
majority  of  those  who  first  came  to  Massachusetts 
were  small  "  merchants,  husbandmen,  and  artificers  "; 
men  with  little  property  or  none  at  all ;  uneducated 
and  home-keeping  men  whose  outlook  was  bounded 
by  the  parish ;  Puritans  by_  temperament  and  habit 
rather  than  by  reasoned  conviction:  followers  in  a 
very  real  and  literal  sense.  Few  of  them  would  have 
come  as  individuals ;  but  they  came  as  families  and 
groups  of  families  from  the  same  community,  yielding 
to  the  call  of  a  favorite  minister  or  trusted  neighbor. 
And  few  would  have  come  for  religion's  sake  alone. 
Persecution  was  the  efficient  cause,  but  straitened 
circumstances  frequently  gave  point  to  the  pricks  of 
conscience.  Even  Winthrop  himself,  a  man  of  sub 
stantial  possessions,  tells  us  that  a  consideration  for 
his  undertaking  the  New  World  venture  was  that 
"  his  meanes  heer  are  soe  shortened  as  he  shall  not 
be  able  to  continue  in  that  place  and  employment 
where  he  now  is."  Plow  far  more  persuasive  an  appeal 
was  this  to  common  folk !  "  This  lande  grows  weary 
of  her  inhabitants,  soe  as  man  is  heer  of  less  price 
amongst  us  than  a  horse  or  sheep.  All  towns  com 
plain  of  the  burthen  of  their  poore  though  we  have 
taken  up  many  unnecessary,  yea  unlawfull  trades  to 
maintaine  them.  Children,  servants,  and  neighbors 
(especially  if  they  be  poore)  are  considered  the 
greatest  burthen.  We  stand  heer  striving  for  places 
of  habitation  (many  men  spending  as  much  labour 
and  cost  to  recover  or  keep  sometimes  an  acre  or  two 
of  land  as  would  procure  them  many  hundred  as 
good  or  better  in  another  country)  and  in  ye  mean 


THE  ENGLISH  MIGRATION  95 

tyme  suffer  a  whole  continent  as  fruitful  and  con 
venient  for  the  use  of  man  to  lie  waste  without  any 
improvement." 

Both  in  a  spiritual  and  a  material  sense,  it  was  to 
preserve  and  not  to  dissolve  the  ties  of  community 
life  that  the  Puritans,  leaders  and  followers  alike 
came  to  Massachusetts.  Coming  as  townsmen  seek 
ing  land,  they  settled  in  towns,  to  which  they  ofter 
gave  the  names  of  the  places  from  which  they  came 
—  for  example,  Boston,  Plymouth,  Dorchester.  The 
town  was  not  Originally  an  industrial  center,  butj 
a  group  of  agricultural  proprietors  who  procu 
from  the  company  title  to  the  land  which  they  hel 
individually  or  in  common  according  to  custom,  and 
which  they  cultivated  after  the  manner  with  which 
they  were  familiar.  Free  and  equal  access  to  the  soil 
was  the  principle  upon  which  the  original  grants 
were  made :  there  were  no  quit-rents  or  charges  ;  the 
allotments  were  small,  and  so  far  as  possible  equal  in 
value.  And  happily  the  ideals  of  the  settlers  were 
suited  to  the  environment  in  which  they  found  them 
selves.  The  soil  was  adapted  to  the  raising  of  a  vari 
ety  of  farm  products ;  corn  and  fodder  and  vegeta 
bles,  swine  and  cattle  and  horses  ;  products  requiring 
neither  great  estates  nor  servile  labor  for  profitable 
cultivation.  Thus  in  New  F.nfrlgnf)  thp.  nm't  of  sp.tt1p.- 
ment_was  a.  group  pf  smnll,  free 


together  in  villages^ jiid  managing  their  affairs  by 
concerted  action.  The  town  and  the  town  meeting 
were  as  natural  to  New  England  as  the  plantation 
and  the  county  were  to  Virginia  and  the  other  South 
ern  colonies. 


96  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

But  the  community  in  New  England  was  a  spirit 
ual  as  well  as  an  industrial  enterprise,  and  the  coun 
terpart  of -the  town  was  the  church.  By  the  leaders 
especially,  settlement  was  regarded  more  as  a  plant 
ing  of  churches  than  as  the  founding  of  towns.  In 
their  view  the  church  covenant  was  the  expression  of 
the  fundamental  social  pact,  the  public  confession  of 
membership  in  the  spiritual  City  of  God,  the  very 
basis  of  "  that  Church-State,"  that  "  due  form  of 
Government  both  civil  and  ecclesiastical,"  which  they 
had  come  to  the  New  World  to  establish.  "  We  cov 
enant  with  our  Lord  and  with  one  another"  -so 
runs  the  Salem  covenant,  which  may  be  taken  as 
typical  —  "  we  avouch  the  Lord  to  be  our  God,  and 
ourselves  to  be  his  people,  in  the  truth  and  simplicity 
of  our  spirits.  We  promise  to  walk  with  our  breth 
ren,  with  all  watchfulness  and  tenderness,  avoiding 
jealousy  and  suspicion,  back-bitings,  censurings,  pro- 
vokings,  secret  risings  of  spirit  against  them ;  but  in 
all  offenses  to  follow  the  rule  of  our  Lord  Jesus,  and 
to  bear  and  forbear,  give  and  forgive,  as  he  hath 
taught  us.  We  do  hereby  promise  to  carry  ourselves 
in  all  lawful  obedience  to  those  that  are  over  us,  in 
church  and  commonwealth.  We  resolve  to  approve 
ourselves  to  the  Lord  in  our  particular  callings  ; 
shunning  idleness  as  the  bane  of  any  state  ;  nor  will 
we  deal  hardly  or  oppressingly  with  any,  wherein  we 
are  the  Lord's  stewards." 

Town  and  church  were  thus  the  basis  of  settle 
ment  ;  but  whatever  measure  of  self -direction  either 
might  enjoy,  neither  was  regarded  as  independent. 
All  legal  authority  was  vested  in  the  company  and 


THE  ENGLISH  MIGRATION  97 

exercised  by  the  officers  and  freemen  assembled  in 
general  court.  Yet  of  the  two  thousand  settlers  who 
came  over  in  1630,  less  than  a  score  were  members 
of  the  company.  Authority  so  narrowly  confined 
could  not  long  remain  unquestioned  in  a  primitive 
community.  In  October,  1630,  one  hundred  and 
nine  persons  petitioned  to  be  admitted  to  the  freedom 
of  the  corporation.  It  was  a  critical  moment  in  the 
history  of  this  "  due  form  of  Government."  Without 
numbers,  the  colony  could  not  thrive  ;  without  re 
striction  of  authority,  it  would  be  in  danger  of  fall 
ing  away  from  the  ideals  of  its  founders.  The  cir 
cumstance  was  one  of  many  to  reveal  the  essential 
difference,  in  respect  to  primary  motive,  between 
leaders  and  followers.  The  mass  of  the  settlers  had 
migrated  primarily  to  secure  economic  enfranchise 
ment  :  too  great  restraint  would  drive  them  to  the 
north,  where  colonists  were  desired  by  Mason  and 
Gorges,  or  to  Plymouth,  where  the  tolerant  Pilgrims 
would  welcome  them  perhaps  on  easier  terms.  But 
Winthrop  and  his  associates  had  migrated  primarily 
to  establish  a  community  that  should  live  by  God's 
law ;  and  to  admit  all  freeholders  to  share  in  its  di 
rection  would  end  in  the  defeat  of  that  high  purpose. 
Weight  of  numbers  prevailed  at  last ;  and  the 
history  of  Massachusetts  Bay  in  the  seventeenth  cen 
tury  is  the  story  of  the  vain  and  pathetic  effort  of 
single-minded  men  to  identify  the  temporal  and  the 
spiritual  commonwealths.  The  compromise  presently 
made  was  the  first  step  in  the  final  surrender.  The 
one  hundred  and  nine  petitioners  were  admitted  ;  but 
it  was  shortly  voted,  in  plain  violation  of  the  charter, 


98  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

that  the  rights  of  the  freemen  should  be  confined 
to  the  election  of  the  assistants ;  and,  "  to  the  end 
that  the  body  of  the  commons  may  be  preserved  of 
honest  and  good  men,  it  was  likewise  ordered  that 
for  time  to  come  no  man  shall  be  admitted  to  the 
freedom  of  this  body  polliticke  but  such  as  are  mem 
bers  of  some  of  the  churches  within  the  lymitts  of 
the  same."  In  order  to  preserve  the  purity  of  the 
state  still  more  effectively,  it  was  voted,  in  1636,  that 
even  church  members  should  be  excluded  unless  the 
churches  to  which  they  belonged  had  secured  the  ap 
probation  both  of  the  magistrates  and  of  a  majority 
of  the  churches  already  established. 

The  suffrage  remained  thus  restricted  until  1684, 
although  a  nominal  modification  was  made  in  1664. 
But  the  freemen  were  not  long  content  to  see  their 
privileges  confined  to  the  election  of  assistants  and 
magistrates.  The  first  protest  was  characteristically 
English.  In  1632  the  minister  of  Watertown  Church, 
George  Phillips,  more  independent  in  his  manner  of 
thinking  than  the  majority  of  the  clergy,  induced  his 
congregation  to  pass  the  first_resolution  in  America 
against  taxation  without  representation  :  "It  was  not 
safe,"  they  contended,  "  to  pay  money  after  that  sort 
for  fear  of  bringing  their  posterity  into  bondage." 
A  magisterial  reprimand  from  Governor  Winthrop 
reduced  the  protestants  to  the  level  of  an  apology; 
but  in  1634  the  freemen  demanded  to  see  the  charter, 
and  when  it  became  generally  known  that  supreme 
authority  was  vested  in  the  freemen  assembled  in 
general  court,  rather  than  in  the  board  of  assistants, 
the  latter  was  forced  to  concede  to  the  former  a  share 


THE  ENGLISH  MIGRATION  99 

in  the  business  of  lawmaking.  Since  it  was  inconven 
ient  for  all  the  freemen  to  attend  the  sessions  of  the 
general  court  in  person,  they  adopted  the  custom  of 
sending  two  deputies  from  each  town  to  represent 
them.  The  assistants,  thus  overbalanced  by  the  depu 
ties,  demanded  the  privilege  of  the  negative  voice,  a 
contention  which  the  deputies  were  inclined  to  deny, 
but  which  resulted,  in  1644,  in  the  separation  of  the 
general  court  into  two  houses,  the  board  of  assistants 
constituting  the  upper  chamber  and  the  deputies  the 
lower.  During  the  same  period  the  discretionary 
powers  of  the  magistrates  in  administering  the  laws 
gave  the  deputies  much  concern  ;  and  their  constant 
protests  were  not  without  effect,  although  the  victory 
was  mainly  to  the  magistrates.  The  results  of  the 
first  decade  of  conflict  between  leaders  and  followers 
over  the  distribution  of  political  power  are  registered 
in  the  famous  Body  of  Liberties  which  was  promul 
gated  in  1641. 

In  spite  of  concessions  to  the  freemen,  political 
privilege  remained  narrowly  limited.  Between  1631 
and  1674  the  total  number  of  freemen  admitted  was 
2527,  about  one  fifth  of  the  adult  male  residents. 
The  suffrage  was  thus  far  more  exclusive  than  a  free 
hold  test  would  have  made  it.  In  town  meeting, 
voting  was  not  always  restricted  to  freemen  ;  but  in 
deciding  important  matters  non-freemen  were  usually 
excluded.  And  yet  the  formal  restriction  of  political 
privilege,  narrow  as  it  was,  gives  no  true  measure  of 
the  real  concentration  of  political  power.  Deference 
to  the  magistrate,  no  less  than  the  habit  of  protest 
against  illegal  action,  was  an  English  tradition.  The 


100  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

circumstances  of  the  migration  had  tremendously  ac 
centuated  the  force  of  the  religious  appeal,  and  the 
freemen,  being  church  members,  were  of  all  the  set 
tlers  precisely  that  part  most  disposed  to  defer  to  the 
wishes  of  the  clergy,  and  to  select  for  magistrates 
those  whom  they  approved.  "  They  daily  direct  their 
choice  to  make  use  of  such  men  as  mainly  endeavor 
to  keepe  the  truths  of  Christ  unspotted,  neither  will 
any  Christian  of  sound  judgment  vote  for  any  but 
such  as  earnestly  contend  for  the  faith,  although  the 
increase  of  trade  and  traffique  may  be  a  great  induce 
ment  to  some."  The  freemen  sometimes  demonstrated 
their  power,  but  the  same  men  were  customarily  re 
turned  to  office  year  after  year.  The  magistrates  and 
the  clergy,  a  handful  of  men  with  practically  per 
manent  tenure,  men  of  strong  character  and  of  great 
ability  for  the  most  part,  virtually  governed  Massa 
chusetts  Bay  for  two  generations. 

They  governed  the  colony,  these  "  unmitred  popes 
of  a  pope-hating  commonwealth,"  yet  not  without 
storm  and  stress ;  and  of  all  their  difficulties,  the 
quarrel  with  the  freemen  over  the  distribution  of 
political  power  was  far  from  being  the  most  per 
plexing.  In  1631,  Roger  Williams,  a  young  minister 
of  engaging  personality,  with  "  many  precious  parts, 
but  very  unsettled  in  judgemente,"  came  to  Boston. 
He  scrupled  to  "  officiate  to  an  unseparated  people," 
and  soon  went  down  to  Plymouth,  where  he  "  begane 
to  fall  into  strange  oppinions,  and  from  opinion  to 
practise  ;  which  caused  some  controversie,  by  occasion 
whereof  he  left  them  something  abruptly."  Return 
ing  to  Massachusetts,  he  became  minister  of  Salem 


THE  ENGLISH  MIGRATION          101 

Church,  which  was  itself ''thought  to  'be'thfg&f  with 
radicalism.  But  the  radicalism  of  Williams  went  be 
yond  all  reason.  He  maintained  that  the  land  of  New 
England  belonged  to  the  Indians,  and  that  the  set 
tlers  were  therefore  living  "  under  a  sin  of  usurpa 
tion  of  others  possessions."  And  he  denied  that  the 
state  had  any  rightful  authority  in  matters  of  con 
science,  holding  with  Kobert  Browne  that  "  concern 
ing  the  outward  provision  and  outward  justice  [the 
magistrates]  are  to  look  to  it ;  but  to  compell  reli 
gion,  to  plant  churches  by  power,  and  to  force  a  sub 
mission  to  Ecclesiasticall  Government  by  lawes  and 
penalties,  belongeth  not  to  them."  By  farmer  and 
magistrate  alike  the  man  was  regarded  as  a  nuisance, 
and  after  three  troubled  years  was  banished  from 
the  colony. 

The  ideas  of  Williams  were  too  relevant  not  to 
arouse  controversy,  but  too  remote  from  the  spirit 
of  the  age  to  win  many  adherents.  Of  another  sort 
was  Mistress  Anne  Hutchinson,  a  woman  of  "  nimble 
wit  and  active  spirit,"  one  of  those  popular  viUage 
characters  who  go  about  among  the  poor  and  sick, 
bringing  wholesome  draughts  of  cordial,  gossip,  and 
consolation.  As  a  taster  of  dry  sermons  there  was 
none  better ;  so  that  many  women  of  Boston,  and 
not  a  few  men,  fell  into  the  habit  of  assembling  at 
her  house,  where  she  discoursed  on  the  latest  sermon 
or  Thursday  lecture,  and  by  exegesis  and  comment 
and  criticism  made  all  clear.  And  her  doctrine  went 
straight  to  the  heart  and  intelligence  of  the  average 
man  in  the  seventeenth  century,  as  it  does  to-day 
and  has  in  all  ages.  "  Come  along  with  me  says  one 


102  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

of  them/ I  'le  bring  you  to  a  woman  that  preaches 
better  Gospell  than  any  of  your  black-coats  that 
have  been  at  the  Niniversity,  a  woman  of  another 
kind  of  spirit,  who  hath  had  many  revelations  of 
things  to  come ;  and  for  my  part,  saith  he,  I  had 
rather  hear  such  a  one  that  speaks  from  the  mere 
motion  of  the  spirit,  without  any  study  at  all,  than  any 
of  your  learned  Scollers,  although  they  may  be  fuller 
of  Scripture."  This,  indeed,  was  the  secret  of  Mis 
tress  Anne's  power,  that  she  spoke  the  language  of 
the  untutored,  and  infused  into  the  scholastic  cate 
gories  of  theology  the  elemental  and  familiar  emo 
tions  of  daily  life. 

The  issue  raised  by  Anne  Hutchinson  soon  passed 
into  politics,  and  the  little  colony  was  divided  into 
irreconcilable  factions.  The  good  woman  had  a  great 
following  in  Boston,  including  not  a  few  in  high 
places.  Wheelwright  was  her  avowed  defender ;  John 
Cotton  was  half  convinced.  The  credit  of  the  party 
was  raised  by  the  accession  of  the  brilliant  Sir  Harry 
Vane,  lately  come  from  England,  and  destined  to  re 
turn  hither  to  vex  a  greater  than  Winthrop.  Vane 
was  as  radical  in  politics  as  Mistress  Anne  was  in 
religion ;  and  the  two  made  common  cause  against 
the  magistrates  and  clergy.  Had  the  issue  been  con 
fined  to  Boston  the  result  could  not  have  been 
doubtful,  for  the  Boston  Church  was  predominantly 
Hutchinsonian ;  but  the  ministers  as  a  body  sup 
ported  Winthrop  and  Wilson,  and  the  old  magis 
trates  were  returned  in  the  election  of  1637.  The 
victory  was  a  crucial  one.  The  erratic  Vane  went  off 
to  England ;  Cotton  returned  to  his  first  allegiance ; 


THE  ENGLISH  MIGRATION          103 

and  when  the  cause  of  all  the  trouble  was  cited  to 
appear  before  the  court  in  the  fall  of  the  same  year, 
the  decree  of  banishment  was  a  foregone  conclusion. 
Like  Luther  before  the  diet,  Anne  Hutchinson 
pressed  for  reasons  —  "I  desire  to  know  wherefore  I 
am  banished."  It  was  in  the  spirit  of  the  Roman 
Church  that  Governor  Winthrop  replied  —  "  say  no 
more ;  the  Court  knows  wherefore,  and  is  satisfied." 

The  direct  result  of  the  expulsion  of  Williams 
and  Anne  Hutchinson  was  the  founding  of  Rhode 
Island,  famous  as  an  early  experiment  in  the  separa- 
tion_oi£hurch  and  State.  Williams,  with  his  few  fol 
lowers,  denied  admittance  to  Plymouth,  went  on  to 
the  south  and  founded  the  town  of  Providence.  Into 
this  region  there  shortly  came  the  much  larger  group, 
including  William  Coddington,  who  followed  Anne 
Hutchinson  into  exile.  The  settlements  of  Ports 
mouth  and  New  Port,  which  they  established  there, 
were  united  with  Providence,  under  a  patent  pro 
cured  by  Williams  in  1643,  to  form  the  colony  of 
Rhode  Island,  where  flourished,  to  the  scandal  of  its 
neighbors,  that  "  soul  liberty "  of  which  Williams 
was  the  apostle.  Yet  not  without  difficulty.  Peopled 
by  those  who  were  too  eccentric  not  to  prove  trouble 
some,  the  history  of  the  little  colony  was  a  stormy 
one  —  its  peace  "  like  the  peace  of  a  man  who  has 
the  tertian  ague  "  ;  but  its  fame  is  secure,  and  its 
founder,  condemned  by  the  common  sense  of  his  age, 
will  ever  be  celebrated  as  the  prophet  of  those  pri 
mary  American  doctrines,  democracy  and  religious 
toleration. 

Rhode  Island  was  founded  by  those  who  were  not 


104  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

allowed  to  remain  in  Massachusetts ;  Connecticut  by 
those  who,  finding  its  conditions  too  restricted,  did 
not  wish  to  remain  there.  Few  facts  have  been  more 
potent  in  determining  the  history  of  America  than 
the  steady  migration  in  search  of  better  opportu 
nities.  A  decade  had  not  passed  before  the  west 
ward  movement  began.  As  early  as  1633  many 
people  at  the  Bay,  fired  by  favorable  reports  which 
John  Oldham  brought  back  from  the  Connecticut 
Valley,  began  to  have  "a  hankering  after  it."  In 
1634  the  people  of  Newtown,  under  the  leadership 
of  Thomas  Hooker,  asked  permission  of  the  general 
court  to  remove  there,  advancing,  in  support  of  their 
petition,  "their  want  of  accommodation  for  their 
cattle,  the  fruitfulness  and  commodiousiiess  of  Con 
necticut,  and  the  strong  bent  of  their  spirits  to  re 
move  thither."  The  petition  was  at  first  denied,  but 
in  1636,  permission  having  at  last  been  obtained,  a 
considerable  number  from  the  towns  of  Newtown, 
Dorchester,  Watertown,  and  Roxbury  migrated  to 
the  west  and  south  and  settled  the  towns  —  Hart 
ford,  Wethersfield,  and  Windsor  —  which  became 
the  nucleus  of  the  colony  of  Connecticut. 

While  the  fertility  of  the  Connecticut  Valley  was 
doubtless  attractive,  some  of  the  motives  which  ac 
tuated  Hooker  and  his  followers  lie  concealed  in  the 
naive  phrase,  "the  strong  bent  of  their  spirits." 
Thomas  Hooker,  and  to  a  less  extent  John  Haynes 
and  Roger  Ludlow,  were  men  of  outstanding  ability. 
But  as  their  towns  were  second  to  Boston,  they  them 
selves  were  overtopped  in  influence  by  Winthrop 
and  Cotton,  Dudley  and  Wilson.  In  the  compact 


THE  ENGLISH  MIGRATION          105 

community  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  ideas  as  well  as 
cattle  found  accommodation  difficult.  In  religion 
and  politics  Hooker  was  more  radical  than  Win- 
throp :  he  was  not  wholly  out  of  sympathy  with 
Anne  Hutchinson ;  and  he  defended  the  proposition 
that  "  the  foundation  of  authority  is  laid  in  the  free 
consent  of  the  people,"  whereas  Winthrop  main 
tained  that  the  best  part  of  the  people  "  is  always 
the  least,  and  of  that  best  part  the  wiser  part  is  al 
ways  the  lesser."  And  so,  when  the  petitioners  were 
permitted  to  leave,  the  strong  bent  of  their  spirits 
directed  them,  not  only  to  the  Connecticut,  but 
southward  without  the  limits  of  the  Massachusetts 
jurisdiction. 

While  Hooker  and  his  associates,  with  room  for 
their  cattle  and  their  ideas,  clear  of  Boston's  shadow 
and  the  din  of  disputes  over  the  negative  voice  and 
the  covenant  of  works,  were  establishing  a  more  lib 
eral  Bible  Commonwealth  on  the  Connecticut,  The- 
ophilus  Eaton,  a  merchant  of  "  fair  estate  and  great 
esteem  for  religion,"  and  John  Davenport,  a  dispos 
sessed  London  minister,  were  establishing  at  New 
Haven  a  Bible  Commonwealth  stricter  even  than 
that  of  Massachusetts.  They  had  arrived,  with  their 
congregation  of  well-to-do  middle-class  Londoners, 
at  Boston  in  1637,  where  they  remained  during  the 
winter.  Winthrop  would  have  retained  them  perma 
nently  ;  but  Davenport  found  the  colony  distracted 
by  the  Hutchinson  episode,  and  was  as  much  dis 
tressed  by  the  concessions  which  had  been  made  to 
the  "  mere  democracy  "  as  Hooker  had  been  by  the 
restraints  in  favor  of  a  "mixed  aristocracv."  They 


106  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

therefore  moved  on,  accompanied  and  followed  by 
some  inhabitants  of  Massachusetts,  to  establish  at 
New  Haven  a  community  in  which  the  Scriptures 
should  be  the  "  only  rule  attended  to  in  ordering  the 
affairs  of  government."  But  these  "  Brahmins  of 
New  England  Puritanism  "  did  not  find  the  peace 
which  they  pursued.  The  distractions  which  they  left 
Boston  to  avoid  attended  them  in  the  wilderness; 
and  in  the  end  the  colony  was  united  with  the  set 
tlements  to  the  north,  where  the  liberal  ideas  of 
Hooker  had  proved  compatible,  not  only  with  strict 
morality  and  frugal  prosperity,  but  with  religious 
and  spiritual  concord  as  well.  The  charter  of  1662 
which  founded  the  larger  Connecticut  embodied  the 
ideas  of  Hooker  rather  than  those  of  Davenport,  and 
was  so  wisely  contrived  that  it  stood  the  shock  of 
the  Ee volution  and  survived  to  the  nineteenth  century 
as  the  fundamental  law  of  Connecticut. 

Internal  difficulties  growing  out  of  conflicting 
ideals  of  Church  and  State  had  scarcely  achieved 
the  dispersion  of  the  New  England  settlements  before 
external  dangers  began  to  draw  them  together.  As 
early  as  1637,  and  again  in  1639,  the  Connecticut 
settlements,  threatened  by  the  Dutch  and  the  Indians, 
applied  to  Massachusetts  Bay  for  support  against  the 
common  danger.  The  Dutch  and  the  Indians  were  less 
dangerous  to  Massachusetts  than  to  Connecticut,  but 
the  possibility  of  royal  interference  touched  her  more 
nearly.  In  1634  Laud  had  obtained  the  appointment 
of  a  commission  to  inquire  into  her  affairs,  and  in 
1642  the  "  ill  news  we  have  had  out  of  England  con 
cerning  the  breach  between  King  and  Parliament " 


THE  ENGLISH  MIGRATION          107 

gave  further  apprehension  with  respect  to  the  colony's 
chartered  liberties.  Accordingly,  the  third  proposal 
of  Connecticut  in  1642  met  with  a  favorable  response, 
and  in  the  following  year  the  New  England  Confed 
eration  was  founded.  Rhode  Island  was  without  the 
pale,  but  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  Plymouth,  and 
New  Haven  entered  into  a  "  firm  and  perpetual  league 
of  friendship  and  amity  for  offense  and  defense, 
mutual  advice  and  succor,  both  for  preserving  and 
propagating  the  truth  and  liberties  of  the  Gospel, 
and  for  their  own  mutual  safety  and  welfare."  The 
affairs  of  the  league  were  to  be  administered  by  a 
board  of  two  commissioners  from  each  colony.  Mas 
sachusetts,  with  a  greater  population  than  the  other 
three  combined,  agreed  to  bear  her  proper  burden 
in  men  and  money,  and  presumed  at  times  to  exercise 
a  corresponding  influence.  The  smaller  colonies  were 
naturally  more  willing  to  accept  her  money  than" 
disposed  to  submit  to  her  dictation ;  but  in  spite  of 
disputes,  the  Confederation  was  maintained  for  forty 
years,  an  effective  influence  in  its  day,  and  the  first 
of  many  compromises  which  led  in  the  end  to  that 
more  perfect  union  which  still  endures. 

IV 

Neither  revolution  in  England  nor  the  stress  of 
conflicting  ideals  in  the  colony  turned  the  first  gene 
ration  of  Massachusetts  Bay  leaders  from  the  straight 
course  which  they  had  laid.  Magistrates  and  clergy 
went  steadily  forward,  emerging  from  Nonconformity 
into  practical  Separatism,  as  resistant  to  Parliament 
ary  as  to  royal  control,  as  cool  toward  Cromwell  as 


108  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

toward  Charles.  During  the  quarter-century  of  their 
domination,  Massachusetts  maintained  a  virtual  in 
dependence  of  the  mother  country  and  the  effective 
leadership  of  New  England.  Towards  the  middle 
of  the  century  the  theocratic  principle  might  have 
seemed  more  firmly  established  than  ever  before. 
The  relative  tranquillity  which  followed  the  banish 
ment  of  Anne  Hutchinson  appeared  to  be  a  clear 
justification  of  the  action  of  the  general  court  on  that 
occasion.  It  was  therefore  without  hesitation  that 
the  authorities  acted  when  Anne  Austin  and  Mary 
Fisher,  two  Quaker  missionaries  from  Barbados,  ar 
rived  at  Boston  in  1656.  The  women  were  reshipped 
to  Barbados ;  and  a  law  was  straightway  enacted 
which  decreed  the  flogging  and  imprisonment  of  any 
of  the  "  cursed  sect  of  haeritics  commonly  called 
Quakers  "  who  might  come  within  the  colony's  juris 
diction. 

In  the  seventeenth  century,  it  was  agreed  that, 
next  to  the  Miinster  Anabaptists,  the  Quakers  were 
of  all  dissenting  sects  the  most  pestilent  and  blas 
phemous.  They  used  no  force  in  propagating  their 
beliefs  or  in  defending  their  lives.  They  were  be 
lievers  in  equality,  and  refused  to  doff  their  hats  to 
any  man,  respecting  neither  magistrate  nor  priest. 
They  were  believers  in  liberty;  no  man  to  be  re 
strained  in  matters  of  opinion ;  but  every  man  to 
go  or  come,  to  speak  or  remain  silent,  as  God's  com 
mands,  by  direct  inner  revelation,  might  be  laid  upon 
him.  And  it  appeared  that  God  had  laid  his  com 
mand  upon  many  to  go  among  the  unregenerate 
bearing  testimony,  and  with  sharp-tongued  reproach 


THE  ENGLISH  MIGRATION          109 

and  reviling  to  prick  as  with  thorns  the  seared  con 
science  of  a  perverse  and  stiff-necked  generation. 
Persecution  they  welcomed  as  the  martyr's  portion, 
the  sure  evidence  of  well-doing.  "  Where  they  are 
most  of  all  suffered  to  declare  themselves,  there  they 
least  of  all  desire  to  come."  And  so,  impelled  by  the 
force  of  the  divine  spirit,  they  came  among  the  re 
served  and  seemly  Puritans  of  Boston,  with  scanda 
lous  impropriety  of  action  bringing  the  staid  Sunday 
sermon  or  Thursday  lecture  to  irremediable  confu 
sion,  with  voluble  harangue  and  wealth  of  stinging 
epithet  pouring  scorn  upon  the  self-selected  leaders 
of  the  chosen  people. 

The  harassed  magistrates  wished  only  to  be  rid  of 
them.  But  unlike  Williams  and  Anne  Hutchinson, 
the  Quakers  came  back  as  often  as  they  were  banished ; 
and  as  often  as  they  returned,  their  conduct  became 
more  outrageous,  and  the  penalties  inflicted  more 
severe.  Yet  oppression  bore  its  proper  fruit.  Perse 
cution  engendered  sympathy ;  sympathy  ripened  into 
conviction ;  and  the  more  heretics  were  confined  in 
the  prisons,  the  more  heresy  flourished  in  the  streets. 
The  popularity  of  Anne  Hutchinson's  teachings  had 
demonstrated  how  eagerly  the  average  man  turned 
from  the  literalism  of  the  Puritan  clergy  in  response 
to  the  appeal  of  one  who  spoke  "from  the  mere 
motion  of  the  spirit."  Quakerism  was  above  all  a  spir 
itual  gospel  addressed  to  the  emotions.  Its  humane 
and  liberal  teachings,  obscured  but  not  concealed  by 
the  extravagance  of  speech  and  conduct  in  its  first 
apostles,  stood  out  in  striking  contrast  to  the  re 
pressive  policy  of  the  Puritan  government  as  well  as 


110  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

to  the  cold,  gray  intellectualism  of  the  Puritan  reli 
gion.  The  Quakers  were  a  political  danger  as  well  as 
a  public  nuisance ;  for  whether  few  or  many  were 
likely  to  profess  the  Quaker  faith,  among  covenanted 
and  un  coven  an  ted  alike  their  teachings  fell  on  the 
fruitful  soil  of  discontent.  The  magistrates  were  well 
aware  at  last  that  a  crisis  was  impending ;  and  they 
went  steadily  forward,  with  circumspection  and  not 
without  apprehension,  indeed,  but  without  flinching, 
to  meet  the  final  test.  In  1659  and  1660,  according 
to  law  established  and  known,  five  Quakers  were 
condemned  to  death,  and  four  were  hanged  on  Bos 
ton  Common. 

The  event  was  a  significant  one  in  early  Massa 
chusetts  history,  for  it  revealed,  in  respect  to  the 
ory  and  practice  alike,  the  insecure  foundation  upon 
which  the  Church-State  rested.  In  respect  to  theory, 
the  Quakers  were  a  perplexing  problem  precisely  be 
cause  they  remorselessly  pressed  the  basic  principles 
of  Protestantism  to  their  logical  conclusion.  The  doc 
trine  of  the  inner  light,  like  Anne  Hutchinson's  notion 
of  personal  illumination,  was  implicit  in  the  premises 
of  Luther,  who  had  grounded  the  great  protest  on 
the  conception  of  a  covenant  of  grace,  and  had  laid  it 
down,  as  the  primary  thesis,  that "  good  works  do  not 
make  the  good  man,  but  the  good  man  does  good 
works."  Luther's  revolt  had,  indeed,  raised  a  vital 
social  question :  Are  belief  and  conduct  in  matters 
religious  to  be  determined  by  the  social  will  regis 
tered  in  decrees  of  Church  or  State,  or  by  the  indi 
vidual  will  following  the  promptings  of  reason  and 
conscience  ?  For  most  dissenters  in  the  sixteenth  and 


THE  ENGLISH  MIGRATION          111 

seventeenth  centuries  there  was  a  logical  difficulty  in 
assenting  to  the  first  proposition  and  a  practical  objec 
tion  to  assenting  to  the  second  :  it  was  logically  diffi 
cult  to  deny  the  authority  of  Rome,  which  the  prac 
tice  and  traditions  of  centuries  had  recognized  as 
voicing  the  will  of  Christendom,  without  denying  the 
validity  of  any  external  authority  whatever ;  but  it 
was  practically  impossible  to  appeal  unreservedly 
to  the  authority  of  the  individual  reason  and  con 
science  without  running  into  free  thought  and  allow 
ing  religion  to  dissolve  in  an  infinite  variety  of  opinion. 
Generally  speaking,  most  Protestant  sects  appealed 
from  the  outer  to  the  inner  authority  in  order  to  es 
tablish  their  beliefs,  and  then  from  the  inner  to  the 
outer  authority  in  order  to  maintain  them.  Luther 
himself,  having  denied  the  right  of  the  Church  to 
compel  his  conscience,  straightway  maintained  that 
it  was  not  for  Herr  Omnes  to  determine  matters  of 
religion,  and  fell  back  on  the  State  as  the  defender 
of  his  faith  against  the  dangers  of  dissent.  But  it  is 
indeed  true  that  "  the  business  of  dissenters  is  to 
dissent  "  ;  and  the  Massachusetts  magistrates  found 
that  the  very  arguments  they  had  used  to  deny  the 
authority  of  Laud  were  now  employed  to  deny  their 
own.  This  was  the  logical  opening  in  the  Puritan 
armor,  that  the  Protestant  Church-State  or  State- 
Church  was  but  a  masked  and  attenuated  Catholi 
cism  destined  to  be  destroyed  by  the  very  principles 
upon  which  it  had  been  originally  established. 

If  in  respect  to  theory  the  hanging  of  the  Quakers 
was  a  confession,  in  the  realm  of  practical  politics  it 
was  but  a  Pyrrhic  victory.  The  authority  of  magis- 


112  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

trate  and  clergy,  strained  to  the  breaking  point,  never 
quite  recovered  its  old  security.  The  capital  law  was 
itself  passed  by  a  bare  majority,  and  the  successive 
executions  carried  popular  opposition  to  the  verge  of 
insurrection.  Nor  did  the  executions  achieve  the  de 
sired  end.  The  last  sentence  was  never  carried  into 
effect,  and  for  years  the  Quakers  continued  to  molest 
the  colony,  pushing  their  extravagances  sometimes  to 
the  farthest  limit.  To  fall  to  mere  flogging  after  hav 
ing  inflicted  the  death  penalty  was  a  fatal  anti-climax 
which  marks  a  turning-point  in  Massachusetts  his 
tory  —  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  Winthrop's  Bible 
Commonwealth. 

The  end  was  doubtless  hastened  by  the  Stuart  Res 
toration  and  the  recall  of  the  charter  ;  but  the  theo 
cratic  ideal,  carrying  the  germ  of  its  own  decay,  was 
predestined  to  failure.  For  the  founders  of  the  Bible 
Commonwealth  it  was  an  axiom  that  Church  and 
State  were  but  two  sides  of  the  same  shield ;  a  mat 
ter  of  course  that  the  "  body  of  the  commons  "  must 
be  "  preserved  of  honest  and  good  men  " ;  a  reason 
able  hope  that  all  good  men  would  be  found  within 
the  churches.  And  the  circumstances  of  the  migra 
tion  seemed,  indeed,  a  miraculous  preparation  for  this 
easy  solution  of  human  government;  for  persecution 
was  taken  to  be  but  "  a  strange  contrivance  of 
God  "  to  gather  "  a  chosen  company  of  men  "•  —the 
sifted  wheat  for  planting  an  ideal  commonwealth. 
Yet  of  the  first  settlers  more  than  half  refused  to 
take  the  covenant,  thus  renouncing  the  privileges  of 
the  ideal  commonwealth  without  obtaining  relief  from 
its  burdens.  A  most  disconcerting  circumstance  this 


THE  ENGLISH  MIGRATION          113 

at  the  beginning,  and  of  ill  omen  for  the  future! 
Doubtless  some  strange  perversity  of  the  natural  man, 
some  inscrutable  judgment  of  God  for  the  discipline 
of  his  people,  must  have  kept  so  many  outside  the 
fold. 

But  in  truth  not  all  who  came  to  Plymouth  or 
Massachusetts  were  of  the  sifted  wheat.  Under  the 
stress  of  persecution  and  the  stimulus  of  migration, 
the  mass  of  the  first  settlers  doubtless  caught  some 
thing  of  the  spiritual  exaltation  which  inspired  the 
leaders.  But  it  was  not  for  the  many  to  live  on  that 
high  level  of  purposeful  resolution  and  enduring 
courage.  It  is  a  significant  fact  that  of  those  who 
came  over  with  Winthrop  and  Dudley  two  hundred 
returned  in  the  ships  that  brought  them  out ;  and  of 
those  who  remained  who  shall  say  how  many  met  the 
stern  realities  of  the  New  World  with  a  sinking  sense 

O 

of  disillusionment,  finding  the  material  conditions  of 
life  harder  and  the  spiritual  peace  less  satisfying  than 
they  had  imagined  ?  And  many  there  were  who  had 
never  been  touched  by  the  Puritan  ideal.  "  Men  be 
ing  to  come  over  into  a  wilderness,"  says  the  kindly 
Bradford,  "  in  which  much  labour  and  servise  was  to 
be  done  about  building  and  planting,  such  as  wanted 
help  in  that  respecte,  when  they  could  not  have  such 
as  they  would,  were  glad  to  take  such  as  they  could, 
and  so,  many  untoward  servants,  sundry  of  them 
proved,  were  thus  brought  over,  both  men  and  women 
kind ;  who,  when  their  terms  were  expired,  became 
families  of  themselves,  which  gave  increase  hereunto. 
Another  and  maine  reason  hereof  was,  that  men, 
finding  so  many  godly  disposed  persons  willing  to 


114  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

come  into  these  parts,  some  began  to  make  a  trade 
of  it,  to  transport  passengers  and  their  goods,  and 
hired  ships  for  that  end ;  and  then,  to  make  up  their 
freight  and  advance  their  profite,  cared  not  who  the 
persons  were,  so  they  had  money  to  pay  them.  And 
also  ther  were  sente  by  their  f  reinds  some  under  hope 
that  they  would  be  made  better ;  others  that  they 
might  be  eased  of  such  burthens,  and  they  kept  from 
shame  at  home  that  would  necessarily  follow  their 
dissolute  courses.  And  by  this  means  the  country 
became  pestered  with  many  unworthy  persons,  who, 
being  come  over,  crept  into  one  place  or  other." 

Such  unworthy  persons  doubtless  swelled  the  mass 
of  uncovenanted.  Yet  the  historian  is  apt  to  think 
that  for  many,  honest  and  good  men  enough,  the  cold 
inner  temple  of  the  ideal  commonwealth  must  have 
proved  more  forbidding  than  its  wind-swept  outer 
courts.  To  enter  its  portals  was  an  ordeal  which  the 
average  man  will  not  readily  undergo,  involving,  as 
an  initial  procedure,  a  confession  of  faults  and  a 
profession  of  faith,  a  public  revelation  of  inner  spir 
itual  condition,  an  exposure  of  soul  to  the  search 
ing  and  curious  inspection  of  the  sanctified.  And 
the  covenant  itself  was  found  to  be  no  warmed  and 
cloistered  retreat,  secure  from  the  rude  impact  and 
impertinent  gaze  of  the  world.  Quite  the  contrary  ! 
To  enter  the  covenant  was  to  renounce  all  private 
spiritual  possessions,  to  give  one's  intimate  convic 
tions  into  the  keeping  of  others,  to  subscribe  to 
a  very  communism  of  the  emotional  life.  This  un- 
Roman  Church  was  after  all  but  a  public  confessional, 
in  which  every  brother  was  a  confessor,  and  life  itself 


THE  ENGLISH  MIGRATION          115 

a  penance  for  constructive  sin.  The  soul  that  is  con 
stantly  exposed  grows  callous  or  diseased ;  and  the 
New  England  covenant  provided  a  regimen  well  suited 
to  repel  the  normal  mind  or  induce  in  its  patients  a 
fatal  spiritual  anaemia. 

And  with  every  decade  the  house  of  the  covenant 
became  at  once  more  difficult  to  enter  and  less  com 
fortable  to  abide  in.  The  Puritan  was  not  necessa 
rily  a  sad  or  solemn  person.  Yet  the  light  heart  and 
the  merry  mind  were  not  the  salient  characteristics 
even  of  the  cheerful  Winthrop  or  the  genial  Cotton ; 
while  the  conditions  of  life  in  the  wilderness — the 
unrelieved  round  of  exacting  labor,  the  ever  present 
danger  from  the  lurking  Indians,  the  long  cold  win 
ters  with  their  certain  harvest  of  death  from  diseases 
which  could  be  ascribed  only  to  the  will  of  God  and 
met  with  resignation  instead  of  skill,  the  succession 
of  funerals  as  depressing  as  they  were  public  and  per 
vading —  were  well  calculated  to  deepen  the  somber 
cast  of  the  Puritan  temper  and  accentuate  the  criti 
cal  and  introspective  tendency  of  his  mind.  Inspec 
tion  of  one's  own  and  one's  neighbor's  conduct  was, 
indeed,  always  a  Puritan  duty;  shut  within  the  re 
stricted  horizon  of  a  New  England  village,  it  became 
a  necessity  and  almost  a  pleasure.  When  few  stirring 
events  diverted  thought  from  the  petty  and  the  per 
sonal,  when  pent-up  emotion  found  little  outlet  in 
the  graces  or  amusements  of  social  intercourse,  ob 
servation  and  introspection  fastened  upon  the  minu- 
tia3  of  life  and  every  eccentricity  of  speech  and  con 
duct  was  weighed  and  assessed.  Close  espionage  on 
conduct  was  matched  by  the  careful  scrutiny  accorded 


116  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

every  novel  opinion.  When  the  weekly  sermon  was 
the  universal  topic  of  conversation,  the  refinements 
of  belief  were  more  discussed  than  essentials ;  often 
discussed,  they  were  often  questioned  —  by  strict 
Separatists  like  Roger  Williams ;  by  cavilers  at  in 
fant  baptism  like  that  "  anciently  religious  woman," 
the  Lady  Deborah  Moodie;  by  fervid  emotionalists, 
such  as  Anne  Hutchinson  or  the  Quaker  missionaries : 
and  every  discussion  of  the  creed  left  it  more  pre 
cisely  defined,  more  narrow,  and  more  official.  Under 
the  stress  of  conflicting  opinion  and  the  attrition  of 
acrid  debate,  the  covenant  of  grace  steadily  hardened 
into  a  covenant  of  barren  works,  in  which  an  air  of 
sanctimony  became  an  easy  substitute  for  the  sense 
of  sanctification,  and  the  tithe  of  mint  and  cummin 
was  allowed  to  overbalance  the  weightier  matters  of 
the  law. 

While  the  covenant  became  more  inelastic,  and  its 
rule  of  life  more  strictly  defined,  the  call  of  the  world 
became  more  insidious  and  alluring.  As  the  colony 
became  established  beyond  the  fear  of  failure,  and 
life  fell  from  an  artificial  and  self-conscious  venture 
to  be  but  a  natural  experience,  as  wealth  increased 
and  opportunities  for  relaxation  and  idle  amusement 
multiplied,  the  elemental  instincts  of  human  nature, 
stronger  than  decrees  of  state,  would  not  be  denied. 
During  the  third  decade  after  the  founding,  the  Christ 
mas  festival  found  its  way  into  the  colony,  and 
"dancing  in  ordinarys  upon  the  marriage  of  some 
person"  gave  occasion  for  scandal.  Extravagance  in 
"  apparill  both  of  men  and  women  "  became  the  sub 
ject  of  repeated  legislation:  uwe  cannot  but  to  our 


THE  ENGLISH  MIGRATION          117 

grief  take  notice,"  so  runs  the  law  of  1651,  "that 
intolerable  excesse  and  bravery  have  crept  in  uppon 
us,  and  especially  amongst  people  of  mean  condition, 
to  the  dishonor  of  God,  the  scandall  of  our  profes 
sion,  the  coruption  of  estates,  and  altogether  unsuit 
able  to  our  povertie."  Non-attendance  at  church  did 
not  become  a  problem  for  the  magistrates  until 
1646,  but  the  fine  then  imposed  proved  ineffective; 
and  year  by  year  the  desecration  of  the  Sabbath  be 
came  more  marked  and  more  difficult  of  correction. 
Many  and  sundry  abuses  were  committed  "  by  several 
persons  on  the  Lord's  day,  not  only  by  children  play 
ing  in  the  streets  and  other  places,  but  by  youthes, 
maydes,  and  other  persons,  both  strangers  and  others, 
uncivilly  walkinge  in  the  streets  and  fields,  travel 
ling  from  towne  to  towne,  going  on  shipboard,  fre- 
quentinge  common  howses  and  other  places  to  drinke, 
sport,  and  otherwise  to  misspend  that  precious  time." 
" Maydes  and  youthes!"  The  words  are  signifi 
cant,  for  by  1653  the  first  generation  of  native-born 
New  Englanders  had  indeed  come  upon  the  scene 
to  vex  the  Puritan  fathers.  How  different  from  that 
of  the  first  settlers  must  have  been  the  outlook  of 
those  who  had  never  been  in  England.  They  had 
never  been  oppressed  by  bishop  or  king;  had  never 
felt  the  insidious  temptation  of  a  cathedral  church, 
or  witnessed  the  mockery  of  the  mass,  or  been  re 
pelled  by  a  surpliced  priesthood  desecrating  God's 
house  with  incense  and  music  ;  had  never  seen  a  may 
pole  with  its  accompaniment  of  licentious  revelry,  or 
witnessed  the  debauching  effects  of  a  holiday  festival. 
They  had  solemnly  sat  in  unwarmed  churches;  they 


118  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

had  been  present  at  elections ;  had  seen  men  stand 
ing  in  the  pillory  or  women  whipped  through  the 
streets ;  they  had  diverted  themselves  at  weddings  or 
the  husking-bee,  or  by  walking  in  the  woods,  or  by 
drinking  in  a  tavern.  But  no  frivolous  and  supersti 
tious  world  of  Anti-Christ  compassed  them  about  to 
point  the  moral  of  the  harsh  Puritan  tale.  Their  Puri 
tanism  was  induced  by  precept  and  example  rather 
than  by  the  compelling  impact  of  a  corrupt  society. 
Yet  no  conventionalized  Puritanism,  no  mere  living 
on  the  dead  level  of  habitual  virtues  could  satisfy  the 
leaders  of  the  great  migration.  The  founding  of 
Massachusetts  was  preeminently  a  self-conscious 
movement,  the  work  of  able  and  resolute  men  who 
brought  an  unquenchable  moral  enthusiasm  to  the 
support  of  a  clearly  defined  purpose.  They  had 
counted  the  cost  and  made  their  choice;  and  every 
instinct  of  proud  and  self-contained  men  disposed 
them  to  minimize  the  difficulties  which  they  encount 
ered  in  the  New  World  and  to  exaggerate  those 
which  they  had  overcome  in  the  Old.  Having  staked 
their  judgment  on  the  wisdom  of  the  venture,  they 
were  bound  to  be  justified  in  the  event.  To  admit 
that  life  on  the  physical  and  moral  frontier  was 
less  than  they  had  imagined  would  be  a  humiliating 
confession  of  failure  ;  and  worse  than  a  confession  of 
failure ;  for  God  had  appointed  this  refuge  for  them, 
and  not  to  abide  in  it  in  all  contentment  would  be  to 
cavil  at  his  purpose,  to  question  his  decree.  With 
the  instinct  of  true  pioneers  they  therefore  idealized 
the  barren  wilderness,  pronouncing  its  air  most  heal 
ing,  its  soil  most  fertile;  and  with  unfailing  opti- 


THE  ENGLISH  MIGRATION          119 

mism  proving,  by  the  very  sufferings  they  endured, 
how  practicable,  how  spacious  and  attractive  was  the 
habitation  which  they  had  set  themselves  to  fashion. 
Thus  it  was  that  the  very  influences  which  re 
laxed  the  hold  of  the  Puritan  ideal  upon  the  mass  of 
the  people  served  only  to  strengthen  its  hold  upon 
their  leaders.  With  resolution  stiffened  by  every  ob 
stacle,  magistrates  and  clergy  pressed  on  to  the  ap 
pointed  task,  never  doubting  that  they  were  called 
upon  to  justify  the  ways  of  God  to  man.  Drawing 
their  inspiration  from  Geneva  and  the  ancient  He 
brew  code,  they  assumed,  with  a  courage  as  sublime 
as  it  proved  futile,  to  foster  moral  and  spiritual  ex 
cellence  by  decrees  of  state.  Indifference  or  oppo 
sition  only  called  them  to  a  stricter  rule ;  for  every 
physical  disaster,  every  denial  of  the  creed  or  depart 
ure  from  the  straight  line  of  life,  was  thought  to  be 
God's  judgment  upon  them  for  some  want  of  faith 
or  failure  in  the  law.  And  in  later  years  the  chastise 
ments  of  the  Lord  were  many :  —  the  desolating 
King  Philip's  War ;  persistent  interference  with  their 
chartered  Liberties ;  dissensions  in  the  Boston  Church 
and  quarrels  of  magistrates  and  clergy;  the  rise  of 
"  an  anti-ministerial  spirit "  and  the  growth  of  world- 
liness  and  lax  living  among  the  people.  "  What  are 
the  reasons  that  have  provoked  the  Lord  to  bring  his 
judgments  upon  New  England?"  Such  was  the  pri 
mary  question  which  the  Synod  of  1679  was  called 
upon  to  answer.  "  Declension  from  the  primitive 
foundation  work,  innovation  in  doctrine  and  worship" 
—  this,  according  to  a  committee  of  the  deputies, 
was  the  true  cause.  "  A  spirit  of  division,  persecuting 


120  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

and  oppressing  of  God's  ministers  and  precious 
saints,"  said  Mr.  Flint  of  Dorchester,  "  is  the  sin 
that  is  unseen."  And  not  a  few  maintained  that  all 
their  troubles  were  but  well-merited  punishments  for 
having  dealt  too  leniently  with  the  Quakers. 

And  yet,  in  the  year  1679,  such  explanations  as 
these  were  falling  to  the  level  of  the  conventional 
for  many  of  the  magistrates  and  even  for  some  of 
the  clergy.  After  forty  years  few  of  the  original 
leaders  were  still  alive.  Winthrop  died  in  1649, 
Cotton  in  1652,  Thomas  Dudley  in  1653,  John  Wil 
son  in  1667,  Richard  Mather  in  1669.  The  days  of 
persecution  and  exile  influenced  the  thinking  of  the 
second  generation,  indeed,  not  so  much  as  an  expe 
rience,  but  rather  as  a  tradition  or  a  tale  that  is 
told.  Liberal  influences,  which  were  to  oust  the 
Mathers  from  control  of  Harvard  College,  were  al 
ready  gaining  ground  in  Cambridge,  while  Boston 
had  become  the  center  of  powerful  material  interests 
which  were  to  prove  incompatible  with  the  rigid 
ideals  of  the  founders.  "  The  merchants  seem  to  be 
rich  men,"  writes  Mr.  Harris  in  1675,  "and  their 
houses  as  handsomely  furnished  as  most  in  London." 
In  1680  more  than  one  hundred  ships  traded  at  the 
Bay,  carrying  fish,  provisions,  and  lumber  to  south 
ern  Europe,  to  the  Madeiras,  and  to  the  English 
sugar  colonies  in  the  West  Indies.  Many  men  who 
rose  to  prominence  in  the  third  quarter  of  the  cen 
tury  were  more  concerned  for  the  temporal  than  for 
the  spiritual  commonwealth ;  and  when  material  in 
terests  thus  came  into  competition  with  the  interests 
of  religion,  not  a  few  were  prepared  to  compromise 


THE  ENGLISH  MIGRATION          121 

with  the  world,  and  so  a  secular  and  moderate  spirit 
crept  in  to  corrupt  the  counsels  of  government. 

The  rise  of  the  moderate  party  and  the  divergence 
between  clergy  and  magistrate  is  therefore  a  notable 
feature  of  the  last  years  of  Massachusetts  history  un 
der  the  charter.  In  1679,  after  the  death  of  Leverett, 
Bradstreet  was  elected  governor.  He  was  the  leader 
of  the  party  of  conciliation,  one  of  many  who,  re 
nouncing  the  rigid  and  uncompromising  policy  of  the 
clergy,  were  ready  to  cooperate  with  Randolph  in  the 
hope  of  securing  the  essential  interests  of  the  colony 
by  a  timely  submission  to  the  English  Government. 
And  it  is  significant  of  the  growing  influence  of  the 
property  interests  that  the  moderates  were  stronger 
in  the  upper  than  in  the  lower  chamber.  In  1682 
the  governor  and  a  majority  of  the  assistants,  "  upon 
a  serious  consideration  of  his  Majesty's  intimation 
that  his  purpose  is  only  to  regulate  our  charter,  in 
such  a  manner  as  shall  be  for  his  service  and  the 
good  of  this  his  colony,"  announced  themselves  will 
ing  to  surrender  the  bulwark  of  the  Puritan  liber 
ties.  But  the  House  of  Deputies  voted  to  "  adhere  to 
their  former  bills,"  preferring  with  the  clergy  rather 
to  "  die  by  the  hand  of  others,  than  by  their  own." 

The  event  reveals  the  opposition  of  the  material 
and  the  ideal  interests  which  was  a  prime  cause  in 
the  defeat  of  the  great  Puritan  experiment.  The 
assistants  were  "  men  of  the  best  estates,"  says  Ran 
dolph,  while  the  deputies  were  "mostly  an  inferior 
sort  of  planters."  Randolph  was  a  prejudiced  ob 
server  ;  but  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  the  upper 
chamber  spoke  for  the  shipbuilders  and  traders  of 


THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

Boston.  Forty  years  earlier,  when  Laud  was  prepar 
ing  to  annul  the  charter,  both  magistrates  and  clergy 
made  ready  for  forcible  resistance.  It  was  no  longer 
possible.  Massachusetts  had  ceased  to  be  a  wilder 
ness  community  cut  off  from  contact  with  the  outside 
world.  Her  rapidly  growing  trade  depended  upon 
English  markets.  The  base  of  the  fisheries  was  shift 
ing  northward,  and  a  French  company  at  Nova  Scotia 
was  already  seizing  New  England  ships.  Without 
English  protection  trade  would  be  ruined  and  the 
colony  itself  fall  a  prey  to  France.  Forcible  resist 
ance  was  therefore  not  to  be  thought  of.  The  mate 
rial  interests  of  Massachusetts  bound  her  to  the  home 
Government,  and  practical  men  were  apt  to  think  that 
even  the  spiritual  City  of  God  would  suffer  less  under 
Anglican  than  under  Catholic  control. 

The  recall  of  the  charter  but  opened  free  passage 
to  the  latent  forces  that  were  already  beginning  to 
transform  the  life  and  thought  of  New  England.  The 
theocratic  ideal  had  so  far  lost  its  hold  that  the  event 
to  which  the  clergy  and  a  remnant  of  the  magistrates 
looked  forward  as  to  a  cosmic  catastrophe  was  ac 
cepted  with  resignation  or  indifference  by  the  mass  of 
the  people.  Neither  disaster  nor  serious  disturbance 
accompanied  the  inauguration  of  the  new  regime.  The 
extension  of  the  suffrage  to  the  freeholders  removed 
more  discontent  than  it  created.  A  government  con 
trolled  by  property  interests  approved  itself  as  well 
as  one  directed  by  religious  ideas.  The  colony  was 
no  more  distracted  by  the  introduction  of  the  Angli 
can  service  than  by  the  erection  of  the  second  Bos 
ton  Church ;  and  even  the  passing  of  Harvard  Col- 


THE  ENGLISH  MIGRATION          123 

lege,  that  citadel  and  fortress  of  the  old  theocracy, 
into  the  hands  of  Boston  and  Cambridge  liberals, 
was  far  less  a  tragedy  to  Massachusetts  than  it  was 
to  the  Mathers. 

The  life  of  Cotton  Mather  was,  indeed,  a  kind  of 
tragedy,  for  he  was  the  most  distinguished  of  those 
who  grew  to  manhood  under  the  old  order  only  to 
witness  its  fall  and  live  in  degenerate  days.  Not  less 
able  than  his  father,  but  how  much  less  influential! 
In  early  years  his  voice  was  a  commanding  one,  but 
he  was  destined  to  see  his  popularity  wane  and  to 
live  most  of  his  long  life  in  comparative  isolation 
and  neglect  in  the  very  community  where  Increase 
Mather  had  been  a  high  priest  indeed.  In  such  men 
as  Cotton  Mather  the  old  spirit  lived  on,  sharply 
accentuated  by  defeat ;  and  transformed,  in  such 
men  as  Jonathan  Edwards,  by  dint  of  morbid  intro 
spection  and  brooding  on  the  sins  of  a  perverse  gen 
eration,  into  a  kind  of  disease,  or  spiritual  neu 
rasthenia.  Such  men  could  but  look  back  with 
poignant  regret  to  the  golden  age  that  was  past.  Of 
that  golden  age,  Cotton  Mather  himself,  "  smitten 
with  a  just  fear  of  encroaching  and  ill-bodied  de 
generacies,"  sat  down  to  write  the  history,  recording 
in  the  Magnolia  "  the  great  things  done  for  us  by 
our  God,"  in  the  hope  that  he  might  thereby  do 
something  "  to  prevent  the  loss  of  the  primitive  prin 
ciples  and  the  primitive  practices." 

But  he  had  imagined  a  vain  thing.  For  even  as 
the  century  drew  to  its  close,  the  old  Bay  colony  was 
already  drifting  from  its  back-water  moorings,  out 
into  the  main  current  of  the  world's  thought.  None 


124  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

could  know  to  what  uncharted  seas  of  political  and 
religious  radicalism  they  were  bearing  on.  None  could 
foresee  the  time  when  Calvin's  Institutes  would  give 
way  to  the  Suffolk  Resolutions,  when  Adams  would 
speak  in  place  of  Endicott,  or  the  later  day  when 
Emerson  would  preach  a  new  antinomianism  more 
desolating  than  any  known  to  Winthrop  or  Bradford. 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

This  period  is  fully  treated  in  Channing's  History  of  the  United 
States,  i,  chaps,  vm-xiv;  and  in  Tyler's  England  in  America, 
chaps,  v-vii,  ix-xix.  See  also  Fiske's  Old  Virginia  and  Her  Neigh 
bours,  i,  chaps,  vn-xi,  xiv ;  and  Eggleston's  Beginners  of  a  Nation 
and  The  Transit  of  Civilization  from  England  to  America.  The 
constitutional  aspects  of  the  colonial  settlements  are  exhaustively 
treated  in  Osgood's  The  American  Colonies  in  the  17th  Century. 
For  the  economic  and  social  history  of  the  colonies,  see  Bruce's 
Social  Life  in  Virginia  and  The  Economic  History  of  Virginia  in 
the  17th  Century,  and  Weeden's  Economic  History  of  New  England. 
Contemporary  pamphlets  relating  to  the  colonies  are  to  be  found 
in  Force's  Tracts  and  Oilier  Papers,  4  vols.  Washington,  1838.  To 
understand  the  motives  and  ideals  of  the  Separatists  and  Puritans 
one  must  read  their  own  accounts.  Of  these,  the  most  charming  is 
Bradford's  History  of  Plymouth  Plantation.  This,  as  well  as  Gover 
nor  Winthrop's  Journal,  is  printed  in  Jameson's  Original  Narratives 
of  Early  American  History.  Johnson's  Wonder  Working  Providence, 
in  the  same  collection,  is  a  history  from  the  point  of  view  of  a  loyal 
Puritan  of  average  education  and  intelligence.  Morton's  New 
English  Canaan  (1632)  and  The  Simple  Cobler  of  Aggawam  (1647) 
are  printed  in  Force's  Tracts  and  Other  Papers,  vols.  n,  in.  A  hos 
tile  account  of  the  Puritan  experiment  is  in  Samuel  Gorton's 
Letter  to  Nathaniel  Morton,  in  Force's  Tracts,  etc.,  vol.  iv.  About 
three  quarters  of  a  century  after  the  founding  of  Massachusetts, 
Cotton  Mather  wrote  his  Magnolia  Christi  Americana,  or  the  Ec 
clesiastical  History  of  New  England,  2  vols.  Hartford,  1855.  In 
Bk.  i  he  gives  an  account  of  the  founding  from  the  point  of  view  of 
one  who  felt  that  New  England  was  then  departing  from  the 
"primitive  principles." 


CHAPTER  IV 

ENGLAND  AND  HER  COLONIES  IN  THE  SEVEN 
TEENTH  AND  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURIES 

Your  trade  is  the  mother  and  nurse  of  your  seamen ;  your  seamen 
are  the  life  of  your  .fleet;  your  .fleet  is  the  security  of  your  trade,  and 
both  together  are  the  wealth,  strength,  and  glory  of  Britain. 

LORD  HAVERSHAM. 


THE  decay  of  the  old  Puritanism  in  Massachu 
setts,  so  distressing  to  Cotton  Mather,  was  but  a 
faint  reflection  of  the  change  which  had  come  over 
England  since  the  return  of  Charles  II  to  White 
hall.  With  the  fall  of  the  Puritan  regime  moral 
earnestness  and  high  emotional  tension,  regarded  as 
contrary  to  nature  and  reason,  gave  way  to  a  ration 
alizing  habit  of  mind,  to  seriousness  tempered  with 
well-bred  common  sense  or  spiced  with  a  pinch  of 
cynical  indifference.  Religion  fell  to  be  a  conven 
tional  conformity.  Theologians,  wanting  vital  faith 
in  God,  were  content  to  balance  the  probabilities  of 
his  existence.  Amusement  became  the  avocation 
of  a  leisure  class,  and  the  average  man  was  intent 
like  Samuel  Pepys  to  put  money  in  his  purse,  in 
order  to  indulge  himself  "  a  little  the  more  in  pleas 
ure,  knowing  that  this  is  the  proper  age  to  do  it." 
From  Milton  and  the  Earl  of  Clarendon  to  William 
Pitt,  England  was  no  country  of  lost  causes  and  im 
possible  enthusiasms.  It  was  a  pragmatic  age,  in 


126  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

which  the  scientific  discoveries  of  Newton  are  the 
highest  intellectual  achievement,  and  the  conclusion 
of  Pope  that  "  everything  that  is  is  best "  gives  the 
quality  of  poetic  insight. 

In  this  age  the  direction  of  English  affairs  fell  to 
men  well  suited  to  the  national  temper.  The  first 
Charles  suffered  martyrdom  for  his  faith;  the  sec 
ond,  determined  never  again  to  go  on  his  travels, 
set  the  standard  of  public  morality  by  selling  him 
self  to  France,  and  with  a  smile  professing  the  be 
lief  that  honor  in  man  and  virtue  in  woman  were 
but  devices  to  raise  the  price  of  capitulation.  And 
so  he  often  found  it ;  for  he  was  himself  served  by 
men  who,  having  renounced  their  Puritan  principles 
for  place  and  power,  were  prepared  to  forswear  the 
Stuarts  in  order  to  follow  the  rising  star  of  William 
of  Orange.  William  was  an  able  statesman,  indeed, 
but  his  interest  was  in  the  grand  alliance ;  he  "  bor 
rowed  England  on  his  way  to  Versailles,"  and 
governed  it  in  the  interest  of  the  Dutch  Coalition. 
Queen  Anne  and  the  first  Georges  reigned  but  did 
not  govern;  and  in  the  early  eighteenth  century 
power  fell  to  men  of  supple  intelligence  and  com 
placent  conviction  —  to  Marlborough  and  little  Sid 
ney  Godolphin,  to  Harley  and  St.  John  and  Sun- 
derland,  and  at  last  to  Robert  Walpole,  the  very 
personification  of  the  shrewd  curiosity,  the  easy-go 
ing  morals,  the  material  ambitions  of  his  generation. 

Little  wonder  if  in  such  an  age  colonies  were 
regarded  as  providentially  designed  to  promote  the 
trade's  increase.  The  recall  of  the  Massachusetts 
charter  was  but  one  of  many  circumstances  which 


ENGLAND  AND  HER  COLONIES     127 

reveal  the  rise  in  England  of  renewed  interest  in 
the  plantations.  Faith  in  colonial  ventures  had 
never,  indeed,  quite  disappeared,  nor  had  the  early 
Stuarts  ever  been  wholly  indifferent  to  their  Amer 
ican  possessions.  But  the  fate  of  the  Virginia  Com 
pany  had  cooled  the  ardor  of  moneyed  men,  and  the 
Civil  War,  focusing  attention  for  a  generation  upon 
fundamental  questions  of  morals  and  politics,  ab 
sorbed  the  energies  of  government  and  nation.  With 
the  establishment  of  the  Protectorate  imperial  inter 
ests  again  claimed  attention.  Cromwell,  calling  the 
merchants  to  counsel,  inaugurated  a  vigorous  policy 
of  maritime  and  colonial  expansion.  The  Dutch 
war  and  the  conquest  of  Jamaica  recalled  to  men's 
minds  the  triumphs  of  Elizabeth;  and  those  who 
gathered  round  Charles  II  —  bankrupt  nobles,  push 
ing  merchants,  and  able  statesmen  —  turned  to  the 
business  of  trade  and  colonies  with  an  enthusiasm 
unknown  since  the  days  of  Gilbert  and  Raleigh. 

Yet  it  was  an  enthusiasm  well  tempered  to  prac 
tical  ends,  purged  of  resplendent  visions  and  vague 
idealisms.  The  plantations,  regarded  as  incidents  in 
the  life  of  commerce,  were  thought  to  be  important 
when  they  were  found  to  be  prosperous.  In  1661 
the  king  was  assured  that  his  American  possessions 
were  "  beginning  to  grow  into  Commodities  of  great 
value  and  Esteeme,  and  though  some  of  them  con 
tinue  in  tobacco  yet  upon  the  Returne  hither  it 
smells  well,  and  paies  more  Custome  to  his  Majestic 
than  the  East  Indies  four  times  ouer."  It  was  a 
statement  of  which  the  new  king  was  not  likely  to 
miss  the  significance.  Determined  to  preserve  the 


128  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

prerogative  without  offending  the  nation,  Charles 
was  never  indifferent  to  the  material  welfare  of 
England ;  the  expansion  of  trade  would  increase  his 
own  revenue,  while  the  vigilance  which  preserves 
liberty  he  thought  likely  to  be  relaxed  among  a 
prosperous  and  well-fed  people.  To  commercial  and 
colonial  expansion  the  merry  monarch  therefore 
gave  his  best  attention.  If  he  yawned  over  dull  re 
ports  in  council,  he  listened  to  them  with  ready 
intelligence,  and  was  prepared  to  encourage  every 
reasonable  project  for  the  extension  of  the  empire. 

For  new  colonial  ventures  opportunity  was  not 
lacking.  Widely  separated  settlements  along  the 
American  coast  were  cut  in  twain  by  New  Nether- 
land  and  flanked  on  either  side  by  the  possessions 
of  France  and  Spain.  To  forestall  rivals  in  occupy 
ing  all  the  territory  claimed  by  England,  and  to 
exploit  intelligently  its  commercial  resources,  seemed 
at  once  a  public  duty  and  a  private  opportunity. 
And  no  region  was  thought  more  important,  either 
in  a  commercial  or  a  military  way,  than  the  Cape 
Fear  and  Charles  River  valleys.  So  at  least  reasoned 
the  Earl  of  Clarendon,  Ashley  Cooper,  and  Sir  John 
Colleton;  to  them,  associated  with  five  others,  was 
accordingly  issued  in  1663,  and  again  in  1665,  a 
proprietary  grant  to  the  Carolinas.  The  patentees, 
upon  whom  the  charter  conferred  the  usual  right  to 
establish  and  govern  colonies,  expected  that  the  sur 
plus  population  of  Barbados  and  the  Bahamas,  where 
capital  and  slavery  were  driving  out  white  laborers 
and  small  farmers,  would  readily  migrate  to  the 
Charles  River,  and  there  engage  in  the  cultivation 


ENGLAND  AND  HER  COLONIES     129 

of  commodities  —  such  as  silk,  currants,  raisins,  wax, 
almonds,  olives,  and  oil  —  which,  being  raised  neither 
in  England  nor  in  any  English  plantation,  would 
serve  to  redress  the  balance  of  trade  and  doubtless 
net  a  handsome  profit  to  those  with  faith  to  venture 
the  first  costs  of  settlement.  With  the  English 

o 

market  assured,  a  thriving  trade  and  a  prosperous 
colony  seemed  the  certain  result. 

In  these  expectations  the  patentees  were  disap 
pointed.  Dissenters  already  settled  in  the  region  of 
Albemarle  Sound  were  little  disposed  to  submit  to 
restrictions  which  they  had  left  Virginia  to  avoid. 
In  1665  and  1666  some  discontented  Barbadians, 
making  an  essay  to  settle  on  the  coast  farther  south, 
found  the  country  less  inviting  than  they  had  been 
led  to  expect,  and  returned  to  Barbados  as  the  lesser 
evil.  The  terms  on  which  the  proprietors  granted 
land,  liberal  enough  but  frequently  changed  ;  re 
strictions  laid  on  trade  almost  before  there  was  any 
thing  to  exchange  ;  the  doctrinaire  Fundamental 
Constitutions  which  John  Locke,  fresh  from  the 
perusal  of  Harrington,  wrote  out  in  the  quiet  of  his 
study  for  governing  little  frontier  communities  the 
like  of  which  he  had  never  seen,  —  all  had  little 
effect  but  to  irritate  those  who  were  already  on  the 
ground  and  discourage  others  from  going  there.  In 
1667  there  were  no  inhabitants  in  Carolina  south 
of  Albemarle  Sound;  in  1672  scarcely  more  than 
four  hundred.  Not  silk  and  almonds  but  provisions 
were  raised ;  for  it  was  necessary  "  to  provide  in  the 
first  place  for  the  belly  "  before  endeavoring  to  re 
dress  the  balance  of  England's  commerce.  As  late 


130  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

as  1675  the  proprietors  complained  that  an  expendi 
ture  of  <£10,000  had  returned  them  nothing  but  the 
"  charge  of  5  or  600  people  who  expect  to  live  on 
us."  An  exaggeration,  doubtless ;  but  in  truth  the 
Carolinas  never  profited  the  proprietors  anything, 
never  drew  off  much  of  the  surplus  population  of 
Barbados,  nor  supplied  England  with  olives  or  ca 
pers.  North  Carolina  raised  tobacco,  which  was  car 
ried  by  New  England  traders  to  Virginia  or  the 
Northern  colonies.  The  inhabitants  of  the  Southern 
province,  reinforced  by  French  Huguenots  and  Eng 
lish  dissenters,  exported  provisions  to  the  West  In 
dies.  Yet  South  Carolina,  disappointing  to  the  pro 
prietors,  was  destined  in  the  next  century,  when  rice 
became  its  staple  product,  to  serve  in  an  almost  ideal 
way  the  purpose  for  which  it  had  been  founded. 

The  Carolina  charter  had  scarcely  been  issued  be 
fore  the  Dutch  were  ousted  from  the  valley  of  the 
Hudson.  It  was  an  old  grievance  that  the  Holland 
ers,  under  many  obligations  to  England,  should  have 
presumed  to  occupy  territory  already  granted  by 
James  I  to  the  Plymouth  Company.  And  now, 
wedged  in  between  the  New  England  and  the  South 
ern  colonies,  holding  the  first  harbor  on  the  conti 
nent  and  well  situated  to  share  with  France  in  ex 
ploiting  the  fur  trade,  the  grievance  had  become 
intolerable.  But  the  offense  of  all  was  the  compla 
cence  with  which  the  merchants  of  New  Amsterdam 
ignored  the  English  Trade  Acts.  Reconciled  at  last 
to  the  strange  perversity  of  Virginia  in  raising  to 
bacco,  the  English  Government  had  made  the  best 
of  a  bad  bargain  by  laying  a  prohibition  upon  its 


ENGLAND  AND  HER  COLONIES     131 

cultivation  in  England ;  yet  with  this  result :  an 
English  industry  had  been  suppressed  by  law  only 
that  the  Dutch,  who  still  contested  England's  right 
to  share  in  the  spice  and  slave  trade,  might  carry 
Virginia  tobacco  to  European  ports,  smuggle  Euro 
pean  commodities  into  the  English  settlements,  and 
so  diminish  the  profits  of  British  merchants  and  an 
nually  deprive  the  royal  exchequer  of  £10,000  of 
customs  revenue.  When  the  Dutch  war  was  immi 
nent  in  1664,  an  English  fleet,  therefore,  took  pos 
session  of  New  Amsterdam  in  order  to  secure  to 
England  the  commercial  value  of  the  tobacco  colo 
nies.  Before  the  conquest  was  effected  the  king 
conferred  upon  his  brother,  the  Duke  of  York,  a 
proprietary  feudal  grant  of  all  the  territory  lying 
between  the  Connecticut  and  Delaware  Rivers. 

At  the  time  of  the  conquest  the  colony  of  New 
Netherland  was  occupied  by  Dutch  farmers  and 
traders  on  western  Long  Island  and  on  both  sides  of 
the  Hudson  as  far  north  as  the  Mohawk  River ;  cen 
tral  Long  Island  was  inhabited  in  part  by  New  Eng- 
landers ;  the  eastern  end  entirely  so.  To  establish 
English  authority  in  the  province,  harmonizing  at 
once  the  interests  of  the  Catholic  Duke  of  York,  the 
Dutch  Protestants,  and  the  New  England  Puritans, 
was  a  difficult  task,  but  it  was  accomplished  with 
much  skill  by  Colonel  Nicolls,  who  was  the  first  Eng 
lish  governor.  Religious  toleration  was  granted ;  land 
titles  were  confirmed ;  and  a  body  of  laws,  known  as 
the  Duke's  Laws,  based  upon  Dutch  custom  and 
New  England  statutes,  was  prepared  by  the  governor 
and  with  some  murmuring  accepted  by  the  inhabit- 


132  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

ants.  In  1683  Governor  Dongan,  yielding  to  popu 
lar  demand,  established  a  legislative  body  consisting 
of  the  governor's  council  and  a  house  of  eighteen 
deputies  elected  by  the  freeholders,  and  the  freemen 
of  the  corporations  of  Albany  and  New  York.  With 
the  accession  of  James  as  King  of  England,  the  prov 
ince  temporarily  lost  its  popular  assembly;  in  1688 
it  was  annexed  to  New  England  under  the  jurisdic 
tion  of  Andros ;  and  after  the  Revolution  it  was  dis 
tracted  for  many  years  by  political  quarrels  growing 
out  of  the  Leisler  Rebellion.  Yet  none  of  these  events 
interfered  with  the  economic  development  of  the 
colony.  In  1674  the  population  was  about  7000. 
Natural  increase,  together  with  immigrants  from 
England  and  New  England,  Huguenot  exiles  from 
France,  and  refugees  which  the  armies  of  Louis  XIV 
drove  out  of  the  Palatinate,  swelled  the  number  to 
about  25,000  in  1700.  Dutch  merchants  at  Albany 
did  a  thriving  business  in  furs ;  and  in  1695  New 
York  City,  with  a  population  of  5000,  was  already 
the  center  of  an  active  trade,  mainly  West  Indian, 
by  no  means  wholly  legal,  in  provisions  and  sugar. 

The  conquest  of  New  Amsterdam  was  scarcely 
completed  before  the  Duke  of  York,  by  "  lease  and 
re-lease,"  and  for  the  sum  of  ten  shillings,  conveyed 
to  his  friends,  Lord  Berkeley  and  Sir  George  Car- 
teret,  the  territory  between  the  Hudson  and  the 
Delaware  Rivers,  afterwards  known  as  New  Jersey. 
Dutch  settlers  already  occupied  the  west  shore  of 
New  York  Harbor ;  and  there  were  Swedes  as  well 
as  Dutch  on  the  lower  Delaware.  Favorable  conces 
sions  offered  by  the  proprietors  soon  attracted  New 


ENGLAND  AND  HER  COLONIES     133 

Englanders  from  Long  Island  and  Connecticut,  who 
located  in  the  region  of  Monmouth  and  Middle  town. 
The  proprietors  nevertheless  found  more  vexation 
than  profit  in  their  venture;  and  in  1673  Lord 
Berkeley  sold  his  rights  to  two  Friends,  John  Fen- 
wick  and  Edward  Byllinge,  who  were  intent  upon 
founding  a  refuge  for  the  Quakers  in  America. 
Many  Quakers  soon  settled  in  West  Jersey  along  the 
Delaware,  and  upon  the  death  of  Carteret  the  pro 
prietary  rights  to  East  Jersey  were  purchased  by 
William  Penn  and  other  Friends  who  had  succeeded 
to  the  rights  of  Fen  wick  and  Byllinge.  A  mixed 
population  and  conflicting  claims  made  the  history  of 
the  first  Quaker  colony  a  turbulent  one.  In  1688 
both  Jerseys  were  annexed  to  New  York ;  and  in 
1702,  the  proprietors  having  surrendered  all  their 
rights,  the  two  colonies  became  the  single  royal  prov 
ince  of  New  Jersey. 

Of  those  who  were  interested  in  securing  a  refuge 
for  the  Quakers,  the  most  active  was  William  Penn, 
who  had  suffered  ridicule  and  persecution  for  his 
faith,  and  who  now  desired  a  clearer  field  than  the 
Jerseys  offered  for  his  political  and  religious  experi 
ments.  In  1681  he  therefore  procured  from  the  king 
a  proprietary  grant  of  the  territory  lying  west  of  the 
Delaware  from  "  twelve  miles  north  of  New  Castle 
Town  unto  the  three  and  fortieth  degree  of  North 
ern  Latitude."  The  land  within  these  vague  limits 
was  thought  to  be  "  wholly  Indian,"  and  the  purposes 
of  Penn  did  not  run  counter  to  the  colonial  policy  of 
the  Government.  Optimism  or  ignorance  disposed 
the  Lords  of  Trade  to  believe  that  Pennsylvania 


134,  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

could  as  readily  as  the  Carolinas  be  devoted  to  the 
cultivation  of  u  oyle,  dates,  figgs,  almons,  raisins, 
and  currans."  To  the  political  hobbies  of  Penn  the 
Government  was  indifferent,  while  the  intractable 
Quakers  were  classed  with  jailbirds  and  political  of 
fenders  as  people  who  were  more  useful  to  England 
in  the  plantations  than  at  home.  The  proprietor's 
"  Account  of  the  Province  of  Pennsylvania,"  trans 
lated  into  Du^ch,  German,  and  French,  promising 
religious  and  political  liberty,  and  offering  land  on 
easy  terms  to  rich  and  poor  alike,  attracted  good  col 
onists  in  large  numbers.  Within  ten  years  there  were 
10,000  people,  mostly  Quakers,  in  Pennsylvania  and 
the  Delaware  counties.  Political  wrangling,  some 
what  difficult  to  understand  and  scarcely  worth  un 
raveling,  distracted  the  colony  of  brotherly  love  for 
many  years ;  but  from  the  beginning  the  province 
prospered.  The  settlers  were  as  thrifty  as  New  Eng 
land  Puritans,  and  they  had  better  soil  and  a  more 
hospitable  climate.  Provisions  were  soon  raised  for 
export ;  and  in  1700,  according  to  Robert  Quarry, 
the  Quakers  of  Pennsylvania  had  "improved  tillage 
to  that  degree  that  they  have  made  bread,  flower, 
and  Beer  a  drugg  in  all  the  markets  of  the  West 
Indies." 

II 

As  early  as  1656  London  merchants  were  inquir 
ing  "  whether  it  would  not  be  a  prudentiall  thing  to 
draw  all  the  Islands,  Colonies,  and  Dominions  of 
America  under  one  arid  the  same  management  here." 
Enterprising  capitalists  who  had  ventured  their 


nglish   settlements   until   lt>60. 
EH3Growth  of  English   settlements, 

' 


-. 

Dntr-h  and  Swedish  settlements 

until  16«0. 

Based  upon  maps  in  Channing's  History 
of  the  United  State*.  I,  p.  5/0,  and  II, 
p.  60i.  The  Maemillan  Co. 


79  °  Longitude     West        fro 


ENGLAND  AND  HER  COLONIES     135 

money  in  Jamaica  or  Barbados  were  content  to  leave 
the  honor  and  profit  of  founding  new  colonies  to 
idealists  like  Penn  and  Shaftesbury ;  but  they 
eagerly  welcomed  the  restored  monarch  after  the 
unsettled  conditions  of  1659,  and  were  prepared,  even 
before  he  landed,  to  tell  him  "  how  the  forraigne 
plantations  may  be  made  most  useful  to  the  Trade 
and  Navigation  of  these  Kingdomes."  Of  all  the 
busy  promoters  whose  private  interests  were,  by 
some  strange  whim  of  Providence,  in  such  happy 
accord  with  the  nation's  welfare  and  the  theories  of 
economists,  none  was  more  conspicuous  than  Martin 
Noel.  He  was  a  man  of  varied  activities :  a  stock 
holder  in  the  East  India  Company  ;  a  farmer  of  the 
inland  post  office  and  of  the  excise ;  a  banker  who 
made  loans,  and  issued  bills  of  exchange  and  letters 
of  credit.  His  many  ships  traded  in  the  West  Indies, 
in  New  England  and  Virginia,  and  in  the  Mediter 
ranean.  During  the  wars  of  the  Protectorate  he  was 
himself  a  commissioner  of  prize  goods,  issued  letters 
of  marque,  and  judged  the  prizes  taken  by  his  own 
vessels.  A  center  of  great  interest  was  his  place  at 
the  Old  Jewry ;  the  resort  of  ship  captains,  mer 
chants,  investors,  contractors,  officials  of  the  Govern 
ment.  The  capital  for  financing  one  of  the  Jamaica 
expeditions  was  raised  there  by  Noel,  who  was  re 
warded  by  a  grant  of  twenty  thousand  acres  of  sugar 
land  after  the  conquest  of  the  island.  He  had  been 
intimate  with  Cromwell,  and  after  the  return  of 
Charles  won  the  reputation  of  being,  in  all  affairs  of 
trade  and  plantations,  "  the  mainstay  of  the  Govern 
ment."  It  was  through  Martin  Noel,  and  men  of  his 


! 


136  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

kind,  that  the  old  colonial  system  began  to  be  shaped 
to  serve  the  ends  of  the  moneyed  and  mercantile  in 
terests  of  England. 

Enterprising  men  like  Noel  were  prosperous 
enough,  but  their  extended  vision  enabled  them  to 
complain  intelligently  of  the  decay  of  trade.  In  the 
year  1660  exports  made  not  more  than  a  fourth  part 
of  the  eight  and  a  half  millions  of  England's  foreign 
commerce.  Money  was  scarce,  interest  high,  rents 
and  prices  low.  No  one  doubted  that  the  effective 
remedy  for  these  ills  lay  in  establishing  a  "favorable 
balance  of  trade."  But  in  the  path  of  this  achieve 
ment  stood  the  old  rivals  of  England  —  Holland, 
Spain,  and  France.  Imports  from  France  overbal 
anced  exports  thither  in  the  proportion  of  2.6  to  1.6. 
Spain  still  worked  the  rich  silver  veins  of  the  Andes, 
and  the  conquest  of  Jamaica  had  opened  English 
eyes  to  the  high  value  of  her  West  Indian  posses 
sions.  Above  all,  the  thrifty  Dutch,  intrenched  in 
the  East  Indies  and  on  the  west  coast  of  Africa,  sup 
plied  Europe  with  the  major  part  of  Oriental  prod 
ucts  and  denied  England's  right  to  share  with  them 
the  honor  and  profit  of  importing  slaves  into  Span 
ish  America.  To  restore  the  balance  of  the  French 
trade,  and  to  contest  with  Holland  and  Spain  for 
the  lucrative  commerce  of  the  East  and  the  West  In- , 
dies  was  the  underlying  economic  motive  of  the  wars 
and  diplomacy,  as  well  as  of  the  colonial  policy  of 
the  Restoration  period ;  it  was  for  this  that  the  Royall 
African  and  Hudson  Bay  Companies  were  organized  ;\ 
for  this  the  Dutch  and  French  wars  were  waged ; ) 
for  this  regulations  were  enacted  for  trade  and  plan- 


ENGLAND  AND  HER  COLONIES     137 

tations.  And  to  contemporaries  the  wisdom  of  such 
measures  was  evident  in  the  result :  at  the  close  of 
the  century,  although  imports  remained  approxi 
mately  the  same  as  in  1660,  exports  had  reached 
the  unprecedented  figure  of  seven  millions  sterling. 

In  achieving  this  result,  the  plantations  were  ex 
pected  to  play  an  important  part ;  and  no  one  doubted 
that  they  had  done  so.  During  the  decade  after  the 
Restoration,  the  commerce  between  England  and 
her  American  possessions  was  about  one  tenth  of  her 
total  foreign  trade  ;  in  1700  it  was  about  one  seventh. 
Imports  from  the  colonies  rose  from  X500,000  to 
more  than  XI, 000, 000,  and  exports  to  the  colonies 
from  X105,910  to  £750,000.  But  the  mere  increase 
of  trade  was  no  perfect  index  of  the  importance  of 
the  plantations ;  for  the  colonial  trade  built  up  the 
merchant  marine  far  more,  in  proportion  to  its  vol 
ume,  than  any  other.  The  American  voyages  were 
long ;  plantation  commodities  bulked  large  in  pro 
portion  to  their  value;  and  whereas  much  of  the 
commerce  between  England  and  Europe  was  carried 
in  foreign  ships,  colonial  trade  was  confined  to  Brit 
ish  vessels.  If,  therefore,  the  merchant  marine  more 
than  doubled  during  the  Restoration,  that  happy  re 
sult  was  thought  to  be  largely  due  to  the  colonies. 
"  The  Plantacion  trade  is  one  of  the  greatest  nurser 
ies  of  the  Shipping  and  Seamen  of  this  Kingdome, 
and  one  of  the  greatest  branches  of  its  trade,"  said 
the  customs  commissioners  in  1678;  "the  Planta- 
cions,  New  Castle  trade,  and  the  fisheries,  make  J  of 
all  the  seamen  in  ye  Nation." 

The  colonies  which  enlisted  the  enthusiasm  of  the 


138  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

commissioners  were  the  plantations  proper.  There 
were  men,  such  as  Charles  Davenant,  who  thought 
New  England  might  have  its  uses ;  but  the  high 
value  of  Maryland  and  Virginia,  of  Barbados  and 
Jamaica,  was  obvious  to  all.  Maryland  and  Virginia, 
it  is  true,  were  not  quite  ideal  colonies,  since  it  was 
found  necessary,  in  their  interest,  to  prohibit  the 
raising  of  tobacco  in  England.  But  the  sugar  islands 
were  without  reproach.  England  was  not  now,  as  in 
the  time  of  James  I,  thought  to  be  overpopulated  ; 
and  Barbados  and  Jamaica  found  favor,  not  only 
because  their  products  were  neither  raised  nor  made 
in  England,  but  because  they  could  be  exploited  by 
slave  labor.  It  was  pointed  out  that  happily  "  by 
taking  off  one  useless  person,  for  such  generally  go 
abroad  [to  the  islands],  we  add  Twenty  Blacks  to 
the  Labour  and  Manufactures  of  the  Nation."  Ne 
groes  procured  in  Africa  at  slight  cost  might,  indeed, 
be  counted  as  commodities  of  export,  while  the  island 
colonies  cultivated  precisely  those  commodities  which 
England  would  otherwise  have  imported  from  for 
eign  countries.  And  the  statistics  of  the  custom-house 
confirmed  the  theory  of  the  pamphleteer  ;  in  1697, 
seven  eighths  of  all  colonial  commerce  was  with  the 
tobacco  and  sugar  plantations,  and  Jamaica  alone 
offered  a  greater  market  than  all  the  Northern  and 
Middle  colonies  combined. 

It  was  thus  the  "West  Indies  which  statesmen  had 
chiefly  in  mind  when,  they  set  about  regulating  trade 
and  navigation  to  the  end  that  "  we  may  in  every 
part  be  more  sellers  than  buyers,  and  thereby  the 
Coyne  and  present  stocke  of  money  be  preserved  and 


ENGLAND  AND  HER  COLONIES     139 

increased."  Three  acts  of  Parliament,  embodying  the 
ideas  of  London  merchants  interested  in  the  tobacco 
and  sugar  plantations,  formulated  the  principles  of 
England's  commercial  code.  The  famous  Navigation 
Act  of  1660  confined  colonial  carrying  trade  wholly, 
and  the  foreign  carrying  trade  mainly,  to  English  and 
colonial  shipping,  and  provided  that  certain  colonial 
products  —  sugar,  tobacco,  cotton-wool,  indigo,  gin 
ger,  dyeing-woods ;  the  so-called  "  enumerated  "  com 
modities  —  could  be  shipped  only  to  England  or  to 
an  English  colony.  In  1663  the  Staple  Act  pro 
hibited  the  importation  into  the  colonies  of  any  com 
modities  raised  or  made  in  Europe,  —  with  the  ex 
ception  of  salt,  of  horses  and  provisions  from  Scotland 
and  Ireland,  of  wine  from  the  Madeiras  and  the 
Azores,  and  of  commodities  not  allowed  to  be  imported 
into  England,  —  unless  they  were  first  landed  in 
England.  In  order  not  to  discriminate  against  English 
in  favor  of  colonial  consumers  of  colonial  products, 
a  third  act  was  passed  in  1673  providing  that 
enumerated  commodities,  which  paid  a  duty  when 
shipped  directly  to  England,  should  pay  a  duty  when 
shipped  from  one  colony  to  another.  In  1705  rice, 
molasses,  and  naval  stores  were  added  to  the  list  of 
enumerated  commodities,  and  in  1733  prohibitive 
duties,  never  enforced,  were  laid  upon  rum,  molasses, 
and  sugar  imported  from  foreign  islands  into  the 
continental  colonies.  The  purpose  of  these  laws,  and 
of  the  supplementary  acts,  of  which  more  than  half 
a  hundred  were  passed  between  1689  and  1765,  was 
to  foster  the  industries  of  the  empire  at  the  expense 
of  foreign  countries,  and  to  develop  colonial  industry 


140  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

along  lines  that  did  not  bring  it  into  competition  with 
English  agriculture  or  manufactures. 

Information  gathered  by  the  Privy  Council  com 
mittees,  which  the  Stuarts  appointed  to  coordinate 
the  work  of  managing  trade  and  the  plantations,  soon 
demonstrated  that  it  was  easier  to  make  laws  than  it 
was  to  enforce  them.  Until  the  end  of  the  century, 
illicit  trade,  inseparably  connected  with  piracy,  be 
came  increasingly  flagrant  in  nearly  every  colony. 
West  Indian  buccaneers,  lineal  descendants  of  the 
Elizabethan  "  sea  dogues,"  nesting  at  Jamaica  under 
English  sanction  until  after  the  peace  with  Spain  in 
1670,  resorted  to  Charleston,  New  York,  Providence, 
or  Boston,  and  under  licenses  granted  by  royal  gov 
ernors  joined  hands  with  the  colonial  free-trader  or 
East  Indian  "  interlopers  "  to  make  the  acts  of  trade 
a  byword  and  a  reproach.  New  England  and  Dutch 
merchants,  "  regarding  neither  the  acts  of  trade  nor 
the  law  of  nature,"  carried  provisions  to  Canada 
during  the  French  wars.  Tobacco  was  taken  to 
Holland  and  Scotland,  or  smuggled  from  Maryland 
through  Pennsylvania  into  the  Northern  colonies. 
Bolted  flour  and  provisions  were  exchanged  by  New 
York  traders  in  the  Spanish  islands  for  molasses  and 
rum.  European  commodities  and  the  spices  and  fab 
rics  of  the  Orient,  secured  at  trifling  cost  from  pirates 
or  "  interlopers "  in  exchange  for  rum  or  Spanish 
pieces  of  eight,  were  carried  in  small  boats  up  the  in 
numerable  estuaries  that  indent  the  coast  from  New 
England  to  Virginia.  Indolent  governors  were  often 
ignorant  of  the  law ;  dishonest  ones,  willing  for  money 
down  to  wink  at  its  violation ;  and  even  those,  like 


ENGLAND  AND  HER  COLONIES     141 

Bellomont,  who  were  honest  and  energetic,  found 
themselves  without  the  necessary  machinery  for  its 
effective  enforcement. 

If  the  violation  of  the  Trade  Acts  called  loudly 
for  a  more  direct  supervision  of  the  colonies,  the 
growing  menace  of  Canada,  enforced  the  same  les 
son.  Under  the  imbecile  Charles  II,  Spain  was  no 
longer,  as  in  Elizabethan  times,  the  first  danger. 
Colbert's  attention  to  colonial  affairs,  as  well  as 
Louis  XIV's  European  ambitions,  soon  obscured  the 
commercial  rivalry  of  England  and  Holland,  while 
the  accession  of  William  of  Orange  to  the  throne  of 
the  Stuarts,  by  pledging  England  to  twenty  years  of 
war  against  the  House  of  Bourbon,  revealed  the 
startling  fact  that  it  was  New  France  rather  than 
New  Spain  which  threatened  the  security  of  British 
America.  English  settlements  had  not  yet  passed 
the  Alleghany  foothills  before  French  missionaries 
and  explorers  had  penetrated  by  the  chain  of  lakes 
to  the  heart  of  the  continent.  Jean  Nicolet  as  early 
as  1640,  Radisson  and  Grosseilliers  in  1660,  were 
canoeing  down  the  Wisconsin  River  toward  the  Mis 
sissippi ;  and  in  1671,  the  year  before  Count  Fron- 
tenac  landed  at  Quebec  to  begin  the  regeneration  of 
Canada,  Saint-Lusson,  with  impressive  ceremony  in 
the  presence  of  fourteen  native  tribes  at  Sault  Ste. 
Marie,  took  possession  of  the  great  Northwest  in 
the  name  of  the  Grand  Monarch. 

It  was  no  mere  spirit  of  adventure,  or  dream  of 
limitless  empire,  that  dispersed  the  French  settle 
ments  over  so  wide  an  area.  As  Virginia  was  founded 
on  tobacco,  so  was  Canada  on  furs ;  and  unless  the 


142  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

Indians  on  the  northern  lakes  could  be  induced  to 
bring  their  furs  down  the  St.  Lawrence,  Quebec  might 
add  luster  to  the  crown  of  Louis,  but  it  could  not 
greatly  increase  the  commercial  strength  of  France. 
A  firm  alliance  with  the  northern  tribes  was  there 
fore  the  first  object.  It  was  for  this  that  military 
posts  were  established  on  the  waterways  of  the  in 
terior.  And  every  stockaded  fort  was  at  once  a  trad 
ing  camp  and  a  mission  house :  merchants  lured  the 
Indian  with  brandy  and  firearms ;  civil  officials  and 
men  at  arms  impressed  him  with  the  authority  of 
the  great  king ;  Jesuit  priests,  strangely  compounding 
true  devotion  and  unscrupulous  intrigue,  learned 
the  native  languages,  and  with  the  magic  of  the  cru 
cifix  and  the  Te  Deum  converted  the  spirit-fear  ing- 
savages  into  loyal  children  of  the  Bishop  of  Home. 
Canada,  with  its  center  at  Quebec,  and  its  outposts 
at  Michilimackinac  and  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  was  little 
more  than  "  a  musket,  a  rosary,  and  a  pack  of  beaver 
skins  " :  not  so  much  a  colony,  indeed,  as  a  mesh  of 
interlacing  interests  cunningly  designed  to  convert 
fur  into  gold.  And  so  long  as  the  tribes  of  the  north 
ern  lakes  annually  brought  their  rich  freightage  of 
mink  and  beaver  to  Fort  Frontenac  or  Montreal,  to  be 
exchanged  there  for  arms  and  brandy,  beads,  hatchets, 
bracelets,  and  gay-colored  fabrics,  gold  was  not  lack 
ing —  for  the  pockets  of  clever  merchant  and  corrupt 
official,  if  not  always  for  the  royal  treasury  of  France. 
"  The  colonies  of  foreign  nations  so  long  settled  on 
the  sea  board,"  wrote  the  Intendant  Talon  in  1671, 
"  are  trembling  with  fright  in  view  of  what  your 
Majesty  has  accomplished  here  in  the  last  seven 


ENGLAND  AND  HER  COLONIES     143 

years."  In  fact,  the  thrifty  and  unadventurous  farm 
ers  along  the  Atlantic  were  as  yet  only  too  indiffer 
ent  to  the  importance  of  Canada ;  still  less  did  they 
foresee  the  New  France  of  which  La  Salle  was  at  that 
moment  dreaming.  After  a  dozen  years  of  heart 
breaking  discouragements,  that  somber  idealist  finally 
reached  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  by  way  of  the  Missis 
sippi.  It  was  on  the  9th  of  April,  1682,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Father  of  Waters,  that  he  proclaimed 
the  sovereignty  of  Louis  XIV  over  "  this  country 
of  Louisiana,  from  the  mouth  of  the  river  St.  Louis, 
otherwise  called  the  Ohio,  as  also  along  the  river 
Colbert,  or  Mississippi,  and  the  rivers  that  discharge 
thereinto,  from  its  source  as  far  as  its  mouth  at  the 
sea."  To  make  sure  the  title  thus  announced  to  the 
silent  wilderness,  a  pillar  bearing  the  arms  of  France 
was  erected,  and  a  lead  plate  buried  in  the  sand. 
The  inscription  would  scarcely  have  frightened  away 
even  a  stray  Englishman,  had  he  chanced  to  see 
it ;  but  when,  in  December  of  the  same  year,  La 
Salle  built  his  wooden  fort  on  the  rock  of  St.  Louis, 
there  began  to  emerge  from  the  world  of  dreams  to 
the  world  of  realities  the  vision  of  a  greater  New 
France,  held  together  by  a  chain  of  forts  on  all  the 
inland  waterways  from  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Law 
rence  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  and  exploit 
ing,  through  friendly  alliance  with  the  native  tribes, 
the  rich  fur  trade  of  the  continent. 

It  was  during  the  last  decade  of  the  Stuart  regime, 
when  the  efficient  committee  known  as  the  Lords  of 
Trade  had  charge  of  colonial  affairs,  that  the  Eng 
lish  Government  first  set  seriously  about  the  task  of 


144  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

checking  the  growing  power  of  France  and  of  sup 
pressing  illicit  trade.  To  aid  the  governors  in  en 
forcing  the  navigation  laws,  collectors  and  comptrol 
lers  of  the  customs  had  been  established  in  nearly 
every  colony  by  1678;  in  1683  William  Dyre,  re 
sponsible  to  the  English  customs  commissioners,  was 
appointed  surveyor-general  and  placed  at  the  head 
of  the  American  service ;  and  it  was  mainly  on  the 
ground  of  illegal  trade  that  Massachusetts  was  made 
a  crown  colony  in  1684.  The  doughty  Colonel  Dongan, 
who  came  out  as  Governor  of  New  York  in  1683, 
was  one  of  the  first  to  see  the  importance  of  Canada ; 
and  after  1685  he  was  supported  by  James  in  the 
attempt  to  divert  the  fur  trade  from  Montreal  to  Al 
bany  by  bringing  the  Iroquois  Indians  under  Eng 
lish  control.  The  scheme,  which  involved  nothing 
less  than  the  ruin  of  Canada,  was  by  no  means  a  vi 
sionary  one.  The  Five  Nations,  lying  south  of  the 
chain  of  lakes,  could  profit  but  little  by  the  fur  trade 
while  it  remained  in  French  hands.  But  let  Albany 
replace  Montreal  as  the  chief  market,  and  they  would 
become  the  indispensable  middle  carriers  between 
the  northern  tribes  and  the  English.  And  the  north 
ern  tribes  were  themselves  not  ill-disposed  to  such  a 
change.  Undoubtedly  the  French  had  better  manners 
than  the  English ;  undoubtedly  French  fire-water  was 
of  excellent  flavor.  But  the  traders  whom  Dongan 
sent  to  Michilimackinac  proved  beyond  cavil  that 
English  goods  were  cheap ;  and  so  long  as  a  beaver 
skin  was  the  price  of  a  debauch  on  French  brandy, 
whereas  a  mink  skin  was  sufficient  to  attain  the 
same  exaltation  by  means  of  English  rum,  the  French 


ENGLAND  AND  HER  COLONIES     145 

control  of  the  fur  trade  rested  on  a  precarious  basis. 
The  chief  obstacle  to  Dongan's  scheme  was  the  divi 
sion  of  executive  authority  in  the  colonies,  the  apathy 
of  colonial  assemblies,  and  the  lack  of  an  adequate 
military  force  to  protect  the  Iroquois  from  the  enmity 
of  the  French.  It  was  precisely  to  change  these  con 
ditions,  and  to  avoid  the  very  evils  which  soon  came 
to  pass,  that  James  II,  who  had  at  least  the  merit  of 
an  intelligent  interest  in  the  colonies,  placed  all  New 
England  under  the  single  jurisdiction  of  Andros  in 
1686,  and,  in  1688,  united  New  York  and  the  Jer 
seys  to  New  England. 

The  Revolution  which  drove  James  from  the  throne 
discredited  his  measures,  but  the  twenty  years  of 
war  with  France  which  the  Revolution  brought  in  its 
train  proved  the  wisdom  of  his  policy.  When  Indian 
massacres  inspired  at  Quebec  made  a  desolate  waste 
of  the  New  England  frontier,  while  Boston  and  New 
York  merchants  filled  their  pockets  by  supplying  the 
enemy  with  munitions  of  war,  the  inadequacy  of  the 
colonial  system  for  defense,  as  well  as  all  the  worst 
evils  of  illicit  trade,  stood  clearly  revealed.  Until 
1715,  the  Board  of  Trade,  which  William  appointed 
in  1696,  maintained  the  traditions,  if  it  did  not  ex 
hibit  all  the  efficiency,  of  the  old  committee  of  the 
Lords  of  Trade.  The  Navigation  Act  of  1696,  pro 
viding  for  nearly  thirty  officials  at  an  annual  cost  of 
X1605,  for  the  first  time  systematically  extended 
the  English  customs  service  to  the  colonies.  In  the 
following  year  seven  admiralty  courts,  subject  to  the 
Lords  of  the  Admiralty,  were  erected  in  the  conti 
nental  colonies  to  try  cases  arising  out  of  the  viola- 


146  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

tion  of  the  Trade  Acts,  while  special  courts  for  deal 
ing  with  piracy  were  established  in  1700.  But  the 
customs  and  admiralty  services,  although  directly  re 
sponsible  to  the  English  Government,  could  never  be 
fully  effective  unless  they  were  vigorously  supported 
by  the  colonial  Governments.  It  was  in  order  to 
make  the  enforcement  of  the  commercial  code  more 
effective,  as  well  as  to  secure  better  cooperation 
among  the  colonial  Governments  for  military  defense, 
that  the  Board  of  Trade  repeatedly  advised  the  re 
call  of  all  the  charters  as  a  measure  necessary  above 
all  others.  The  advice  of  the  Board  was  followed  only 
in  part.  The  union  of  New  England  and  New  York 
was  abandoned.  Massachusetts  received  a  new  char 
ter;  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  retained  their 
old  ones;  Penn's  charter,  annulled  in  1692,  was  re 
stored  in  1694.  But  under  the  charter  granted  to 
Massachusetts  in  1691  the  governor  was  appointed 
by  the  Crown ;  New  Jersey  was  made  a  royal  prov 
ince  in  1702;  and  Maryland  in  1691,  although  it 
was  given  back  to  the  Balti mores  in  1715.  When 
the  Peace  of  Utrecht  was  signed  in  1713,  the  sys 
tem  devised  by  the  Board  of  Trade  for  controlling 
the  colonies  thus  lacked  little  of  being  completely 
established.  The  English  customs  and  admiralty  serv 
ices  had  been  fully  extended  to  America ;  and  while 
control  of  legislation  was  left  mainly  in  the  hands 
of  assemblies  elected  in  each  colony,  executive  author 
ity  was  entrusted  to  Crown  officials  in  every  colony 
except  Pennsylvania,  where  the  governor  was  ap 
pointed  by  the  proprietor,  and  Rhode  Island  and 
Connecticut,  where  he  was  still  elected  by  the  people. 


ENGLAND  AND  HER  COLONIES     147 

III 

It  is  only  by  courtesy  that  these  measures  for  con 
fining  the  trade  of  the  empire  may  be  called  a  colo 
nial  system  ;  and  it  would  have  been  well  if  Eng 
land,  profiting  by  the  experience  of  the  French  wars, 
had  set  seriously  about  the  task  of  fashioning  a 
method  of  government  adapted  to  the  political  as 
well  as  the  commercial  needs  of  her  New  World 
possessions.  But  it  was  not  to  be.  With  the  acces 
sion  of  George  I,  enthusiasm  for  plantation  ventures 
declined ;  interest  in  the  colonies,  undiminished,  in 
deed,  was  more  than  ever  concentrated  upon  their 
commercial  possibilities ;  and  the  constructive  policy 
of  the  Stuarts  gave  way,  in  the  phrase  of  Burke,  to 
one  of  "  salutary  neglect."  The  neglect  was,  indeed, 
by  no  means  complete.  Information  was  assiduously 
gathered ;  many  new  laws  were  passed  ;  the  number 
of  officials  greatly  increased,  and  governors  more 
carefully  instructed ;  colonial  statutes,  more  consist 
ently  inspected,  were  more  often  annulled.  Yet  it  is 
true  that  for  three  decades  after  the  Peace  of  Utrecht 
no  attempt  was  made  to  transform  the  commercial 
code  into  a  colonial  system.  And  even  the  com 
mercial  code  was  administered  in  "  a  gentlemanlike 
and  easy-going  fashion :  little  was  embitfcred  and 
nothing  solved." 

Of  many  circumstances  which  contributed  to  this 
result,  the  effect  of  the  Revolution  on  English  poli 
tics  was  fundamental.  Kings  who  ruled  by  grace 
of  a  statute,  instead  of  by  divine  right,  inevitably 
lost  administrative  as  well  as  legislative  authority. 


148  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

Colonial  policy  was  therefore  no  longer  determined, 
as  in  Stuart  times,  by  the  king  in  council,  but  by 
the  ministers  ;  by  ministers  who  might  listen  to  the 
Board  of  Trade,  but  could  not  take  advice  unless  it 
squared  with  the  wishes  of  the  Parliament  that  made 
them.  When,  in  1715,  Secretary  Stanhope  appointed 
George  Vaughan,  an  owner  of  sawmills  in  New  Hamp 
shire,  to  be  lieutenant-governor  of  that  province,  the 
Board  of  Trade  protested  ;  and  quoted,  in  support 
of  its  protest,  the  remarks  of  Bellomont  about  Mr. 
Partridge.  "  To  set  a  carpenter  to  preserve  woods," 
said  Bellomont,  "  is  like  setting  a  wolf  to  guard 
sheep ;  I  say,  to  preserve  woods,  for  I  take  it  to  be 
the  chiefest  part  of  the  business  of  a  Lt.  Governor 
of  that  province  to  preserve  the  woods  for  the  king's 
use."  The  protest  was  ignored  ;  and  for  thirty  years, 
while  the  Board  of  Trade  fell  almost  to  the  level  of 
a  joke,  the  colonies  were  managed  by  a  Secretary 
of  State  who  was  likely  to  be  less  interested  in  pre 
serving  the  woods  for  the  king's  use  than  in  ad 
vancing  the  interests  of  the  Whig  oligarchy  which 
governed  England. 

It  could  not  well  have  been  otherwise.  The  Whig 
oligarchy,  having  driven  the  Stuarts  from  the  throne, 
was  bound  to  identify  the  welfare  of  the  empire  with 
the  maintenance  of  the  House  of  Hanover.  Con 
vinced  that  so  long  as  there  was  peace  and  plenty 
in  the  land  Jacobite  exiles  would  wait  in  vain  for 
the  day  when  the  body  of  James  II,  lying  unburied 
in  the  church  of  St.  Jacques,  might  be  restored  to 
English  soil,  ministers  labored  to  make  the  nation 
loyal  by  making  it  comfortable.  It  was  therefore 


ENGLAND  AND  HER  COLONIES     149 

necessary  to  guard  with  jealousy  the  material  inter 
ests  of  the  inarticulate  Tory  squire,  who  still  har 
bored  a  sullen  loyalty  to  the  Stuarts,  as  well  as  of 
the  merchants  and  moneyed  men  whose  fortunes 
were  bound  up  with  the  Revolution  settlement.  And 
year  by  year  the  Parliamentary  influence  of  the  lat 
ter  increased.  Members  of  the  South  Sea  and  East 
India  Companies  had  seats  in  the  House  of  Com 
mons  ;  and  the  West  India  Islands,  where,  it  was 
estimated  in  1775,  property  to  the  value  of  <£14,- 
000,000  was  "owned  by  persons  who  live  in  Eng 
land,"  were  in  very  truth  represented  there.  Wil 
liam  Beckford,  who  entered  Parliament  in  1747, 
possessed  of  a  great  fortune  acquired  in  Jamaica 
sugar  plantations,  and  soon  to  become  all-powerful 
in  "  the  City,"  was  only  the  most  famous  of  those 
who  effectively  voiced  the  demands  of  colonial  land 
lords  and  London  merchants.  "  Such  men  used  in 
times  past  to  come  hat  in  hand,"  said  Newcastle ; 
" now  the  second  word  is,  'you  shall  hear  of  it  in 
another  place.'  "  In  fact,  although  ministers  bowed 
to  the  king  and  spoke  of  His  Majesty's  Government, 
they  knew  well  that  the  fortunes  of  the  kingdom 
were  in  the  hands  of  the  big  property  interests  that 
buttressed  an  unstable  throne. 

And  these  masters  of  England,  never  interested 
in  the  colonies  apart  from  their  commercial  value, 
were  less  so  than  ever  during  this  Indian  summer  of 
prosperous  content.  Rising  prices  made  the  era  of 
the  first  Georges  a  golden  age  of  agriculture ;  while 
the  effect  of  the  French  wars  was  to  "  exalt  beyond 
measure  the  maritime  and  commercial  supremacy  of 


150  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

England."  The  Treaty  of  Meuthen  facilitated  the 
importation  of  cloth  into  Portugal  and  the  flow  of 
Brazilian  bullion  to  London.  Levantine  trade  began 
to  open  to  England  after  the  conquest  of  Gibraltar 
and  Minorca.  English  merchants  acquired  special 
privileges  at  Cadiz  by  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht ;  and 
the  Assiento  gave  to  the  South  Sea  Company  a  mo 
nopoly  of  importing  slaves  into  New  Spain,  and 
enabled  it  to  secure,  "  by  the  ingenuity  of  British 
merchants,"  the  greater  part  of  the  general  com 
merce  of  the  Spanish  colonies.  In  1710,  the  number 
of  vessels  clearing  from  English  ports  was  3550 ;  it 
was  6614  in  1714;  and  during  the  same  period  the 
shipping  of  London  increased  from  806  to  1550.  In 
1758,  imports  from  the  continental  colonies  into 
England  stood  at  £648,683,  and  from  the  West  In 
dies  at  £1,834,036.  "The  colonies,"  said  the  elder 
Horace  Walpole,  "  are  the  source  of  all  our  riches  "  ; 
for  it  was  the  colonies,  and  above  all  the  West  In 
dies,  —  that  subterranean  channel  by  which  the  silks 
and  teas  from  Vera  Cruz,  and  Peruvian  gold  from 
Puerto  Bello,  found  their  way  into  England,  — 
which  alone  "preserve  the  balance  of  trade  in  our 
favour." 

If,  as  sometimes  happened,  powerful  Parliamen 
tary  interests  complained  of  conditions  in  the  colo 
nies,  the  Government  was  ready  to  comply  with  their 
demands.  During  the  Walpole  regime,  the  private 
smuggler  in  Spanish  commerce,  whether  Englishman 
or  New  Englander,  was  suppressed  in  order  that  the 
South  Sea  Company  might  enjoy  a  monopoly  of  that 
profitable  business.  When  Jamaica  planters,  unable 


ENGLAND  AND  HER  COLONIES     151 

to  sell  their  sugar  in  Europe  or  Massachusetts  in 
competition  with  the  French  islands,  clamored  for 
relief,  the  famous  Molasses  Act  of  1733  was  passed, 
laying  prohibitive  duties  upon  the  importation  of 
sugar,  molasses,  and  rum  into  the  continental  colo 
nies.  And  in  1750,  at  the  behest  of  the  woolen  and 
iron  interests,  rapidly  growing  industries  in  New 
England  and  Pennsylvania  were  restricted  in  order 
that  the  English  landowner  and  English  woolen  and 
iron  manufacturers  might  find  in  America  the  mar 
kets  which  they  were  losing  in  Europe.  But  in  gen 
eral  neither  the  landed  nor  the  industrial  interests 
pressed  the  Government  to  meddle  with  the  planta 
tions  ;  and  when  no  one  complained,  ministers  of  the 
temper  of  Walpole  or  Newcastle  were  not  disposed 
to  concern  themselves  with  the  reform  of  the  colo 
nial  system,  or  to  inquire  too  curiously  into  the  hon 
esty  or  the  efficiency  with  which  it  was  administered. 
According  to  their  philosophy,  it  mattered  little 
whether  the  Governor  of  Virginia  was  an  able  man, 
or  whether  he  resided  in  London  or  Jamestown ; 
what  mattered  was  that  Newcastle  should  succeed, 
by  a  judicious  distribution  of  offices,  in  maintaining 
a  Parliamentary  majority  for  the  party  which  guarded 
the  liberties  of  England.  It  mattered  little  whether 
the  admiralty  courts  fell  under  the  control  of  the 
merchants  and  landowners  who  dominated  colonial 
assemblies  ;  what  mattered  was  that  the  colonial  mer 
chant  and  landowner  should  be  prosperous  and  main 
tain  a  safe  credit  balance  with  English  merchants. 
And  therefore  let  the  governors  be  punctiliously  in 
structed  to  perform  their  duties  strictly ;  but  let 


152  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

those  be  recalled  who  irritated  the  best  people  in  the 
colonies  by  too  officiously  endeavoring  to  carry  out 
their  instructions.  So  long  as  the  colonial  planter 
was  content  and  the  Tory  squire  could  not  complain 
of  high  taxes  or  low  rents,  so  long  as  merchants  of 
standing  in  London  or  New  York  found  business 
good,  so  long  as  the  English  manufacturer  had  ready 
markets  and  the  trading  companies  distributed  high 
dividends,  it  seemed  folly  indeed  to  attempt,  with 
meticulous  precision,  to  enforce  the  Trade  Acts  at 
every  unregarded  point,  to  construct  ideal  govern 
ments  for  communities  that  were  every  year  richer 
than  the  last,  or  to  provide  at  great  expense  for  an 
adequate  military  defense  against  Canada  when  peace 
with  France  was  the  settled  policy  of  England. 

Unhappily  for  this  policy  of  quieta  non  movers, 
peace  with  France  came  to  an  end  after  thirty  years. 
And  if  since  the  Peace  of  Utrecht  the  English  col 
onies  had  grown  rich  and  populous,  the  French  had 
strengthened  their  hold  on  all  the  strategic  points  of 
the  interior  from  Quebec  to  New  Orleans.  The  prov 
ince  of  Louisiana,  founded  in  1699  by  D'Iberville 
to  forestall  the  English  in  occupying  the  mouth  of 
the  Mississippi,  contained  a  population  of  more  than 
ten  thousand  white  settlers  in  1745.  The  governor 
maintained  friendly  relations  with  the  Choctaw  In 
dians,  and  endeavored  to  alienate  the  Cherokees  and 
the  Creeks  from  the  English  alliance,  and  so  to  divert 
the  rich  peltry  trade  of  the  Southwest  from  Fort 
Moore  and  Charleston  to  New  Orleans.  Attached  to 
Louisiana  for  administrative  purposes  were  the  small 
but  thriving  French  settlements  on  the  Mississippi, 


ENGLAND  AND  HER  COLONIES     153 

between  the  Illinois  and  the  Ohio  Rivers,  centering 
about  Forts  Chartres,  Cahokia,  and  Kaskaskia. 
Between  Louisiana  and  Canada  all  the  connecting 
waterways,  save  alone  the  upper  Ohio,  were  guarded 
by  military  establishments  and  trading  posts  —  on 
Green  Bay,  on  the  Wabash  and  Miami  Rivers,  at 
the  southern  end  of  Lake  Michigan,  at  Detroit  and 
Niagara.  By  discovery  and  occupation,  the  French 
claimed  all  the  inland  country ;  denied  the  right  of 
Englishmen  to  settle  or  trade  there ;  were  prepared 
to  defend  it  by  force,  and,  in  case  of  war,  to  release 
upon  the  unguarded  English  frontier  from  Maine  to 
Virginia  those  savage  tribes,  whom  legend  credits 
with  many  noble  virtues,  but  whom  the  colonists  by 
bitter  experience  well  knew  to  be  cruel  and  treacher 
ous  and  bestial  beyond  conception. 

The  possession  of  this  hinterland  3&&  now,  to 
ward  the  middle  of  the  century,  become  the  vital 
issue ;  for  the  claims  of  France  could  not  stay  the 
populous  English  colonies  from  pushing  their  frontier 
across  the  mountains,  or  prevent  skillful  English 
traders  from  undermining  the  loyalty  of  her  Indian 
allies.  There  were  settlements  in  the  southern  up- 
country  as  far  west  as  Fort  Moore  on  the  Savannah, 
as  far  as  Camden  and  Charlottesburg,  and  beyond 
Hillsborough.  The  outpost  of  Virginia  was  at  Wills 
Creek,  within  striking  distance  of  the  Ohio;  the 
valleys  of  the  Blue  Ridge  were  filling  with  Scotch- 
Irish  and  Pennsylvania  Dutch ;  while  German  and 
Dutch  farmers  of  New  York  occupied  both  sides  of 
the  Mohawk  nearly  to  its  source.  Oswego,  long  since 
established  on  Lake  Ontario,  was  abundantly  jus- 


154  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

tifying  the  ambitious  scheme  inaugurated  sixty  years 
earlier  by  Governor  Dongan ;  for  official  corruption 
at  Montreal  had  not  made  French  goods  cheaper 
since  the  days  of  Frontenac,  and  the  northern  In 
dians  yearly  resorted  to  Oswego  to  trade  with  the 
English.  And  every  year  unlicensed  traders,  such  as 
Christopher  Gist  and  William  Trent,  not  to  mention 
many  "more  abandoned  wretches,"  hired  men  on 
the  Pennsylvania  or  Virginia  frontier  and  with  goods 
on  pack-horses  crossed  the  Alleghanies  to  traffic 
among  the  western  Indians.  In  1749,  Celoron  de 
Bienville,  sent  by  the  Governor  of  Canada  to  take 
possession  of  the  Ohio  Valley,  found  English  traders 
at  Logstown  and  Scioto,  and  in  nearly  every  village 
as  far  west  as  the  Miami.  This  was  the  very  year 
that  John  Hanbury,  a  London  merchant,  and  some 
Virginia  gentlemen,  among  whom  were  Lawrence 
and  Augustine  Washington,  petitioned  the  Board  of 
Trade  for  a  grant  of  five  hundred  thousand  acres 
of  land  on  the  upper  Ohio.  And  the  petition  was 
granted,  in  order  that  the  country  might  be  more 
rapidly  settled,  and  "  to  cultivate  the  friendship  and 
carry  on  a  more  extensive  commerce  with  the  native 
Indians,  and  as  a  step  towards  checking  the  encroach 
ments  of  the  French." 

Those  who  went  into  the  back  country  received 
little  assistance  from  Government,  either  English  or 
colonial,  in  extending  the  frontier,  and  but  little  in 
defending  it.  Tide-water  rice  or  tobacco  planters, 
peaceful  and  gain-loving  Quakers  at  Philadelphia, 
New  York  or  Boston  merchants  trading  in  the  West 
Indies,  all  untouched  by  Indian  massacre  and  ab- 


ENGLAND  AND  HER  COLONIES 


sorbed  in  local  politics,  begrudged  money  spent  to 
protect  a  half-alien  people,  often  without  their  juris 
diction.  The  English  Government,  for  its  part,  had 
long  observed  the  comfortable  maxim  that  if  her  navy 
policed  the  sea,  the  colonists  were  bound  to  provide 
their  own  defense  in  time  of  peace.  Money  for  In 
dian  presents  was  regularly  sent  ;  garrisons  main 
tained  in  Nova  Scotia  and  in  the  West  Indies  ;  as 
sistance  sometimes  given  for  forts  on  the  exposed 
New  York  or  Carolina  frontier.  But  the  expense  was 
slight  indeed  :  in  1733  the  total  amount  appropri 
ated  for  defending  the  continental  colonies,  exclu 
sive  of  Nova  Scotia  and  not  counting  money  for  In 
dian  presents,  was  £10,000  ;  in  1743,  it  was  £25,000. 
And  the  war  which  opened  in  1743  demonstrated 
that  a  government  which  neglected  defense  in  time 
of  peace  could  scarcely  provide  it  in  time  of  war. 
The  New  England  frontier  was  once  more  devastated 
by  pillage  and  massacre  ;  and  Philip  Schuyler,  to 
the  high  disgust  of  his  Iroquois  allies,  was  forced  to 
abandon  and  burn  Fort  Saratoga^  for  lack  of  supplies 
to  maintain  it.  Yet  New  England  farmers  made  pos 
sible  the  capture  of  Louisburg,  and  the  colonies  to 
gether  raised  nearly  eight  thousand  troops  to  cooper 
ate,  in  the  conquest  of  Canada,  with  the  fleet  and 
army  which  the  Duke  of  Newcastle  promised  but 
never  sent.  Massachusetts  was,  indeed,  generously 
repaid  for  the  heavy  expense  which  she  incurred  ;  but 
two  hundred  and  seventeen  chests  of  Spanish  dollars 
and  one  hundred  barrels  of  copper  coin,  sufficient  to 
restore  her  credit,  were  scarce  full  return  for  the  resto 
ration  of  Louisburg  to  France  after  the  war  was  over. 


156  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

With  how  much  ease,  during  the  six  years  that 
followed  the  Peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  might  the 
English  and  colonial  Governments  have  prevented 
the  worst  horrors  of  the  French  and  Indian  War ! 
Deprived  of  her  Indian  allies,  Canada  would  scarce 
have  been  a  danger ;  and  at  no  time  were  the  Indi 
ans  better  disposed  toward  the  English.  "  All  I  can 
say,"  Celeron  de  Bienville  announced  when  he  re 
turned  from  the  Ohio  in  1750,  "  is  that  all  the  na 
tions  of  these  countries  are  very  ill-disposed  toward 
the  French,  and  devoted  to  the  English."  And  in 
the  next  year  P£re  Piquet  complained  that  Oswego 
"  not  only  spoils  our  trade,  but  puts  the  English  into 
communication  with  a  vast  number  of  our  Indians 
far  and  near.  It  is  true  that  they  like  French  brandy 
better  than  English  rum  ;  but  they  prefer  English 
goods  to  ours,  and  can  buy  for  two  beaver  skins  at 
Oswego  a  better  silver  bracelet  than  we  se]l  at  Nia 
gara  for  ten."  Strongly  garrisoned  forts  at  Albany, 
at  Oswego,  and  on  the  Ohio  would  have  transformed 
this  friendly  disposition  into  a  firm  alliance.  But 
there  was  little  loyalty  in  the  red  man's  heart  for  an 
un military  people ;  and  cheap  goods,  however  they 
might  win  the  Indian  in  time  of  peace,  made  but  a 
silken  cord  to  hold  him  in  time  of  war.  "  We  would 
have  taken  Crown  Point,  but  you  prevented  us," 
said  Chief  Hendrick  at  the  conference  hastily  sum 
moned  at  Albany  to  prepare  for  defense  on  the  eve 
of  war.  "  Instead  you  burned  your  own  fort  at  Sara 
toga  and  ran  away  from  it.  You  have  no  fortifica 
tions,  no,  not  even  in  this  city.  The  French  are  men ; 
they  are  fortifying  everywhere.  But  you  are  all  like 


ENGLAND  AND  HER  COLONIES     157 

women,  bare  and  open,  without  fortifications."  Not 
one  representative  of  seven  colonies  had  authority 
to  reassure  him.  Sir  William  Johnson  did,  indeed, 
negotiate  a  treaty  of  alliance  with  the  Iroquois  and 
the  western  Indians ;  and  the  Virginia  assembly, 
yielding  at  last  to  Governor  Dinwiddie's  insistent 
demands,  appropriated  some  money  for  maintaining 
the  wooden  fort,  well  named  Fort  Necessity,  which 
Colonel  Washington  had  built  on  the  Ohio.  But  it 
was  too  late.  The  French  built  a  better  fort  at  Du- 
quesne  ;  and  they  had  scarcely  defeated  the  Virginia 
colonel  and  destroyed  his  fort  before  the  English 
traders  were  driven  from  the  Indian  villages,  and  no 
English  flag  was  to  be  seen  west  of  the  mountains. 
It  was  the  western  tribes  that  brought  Braddock's 
expedition  to  a  disastrous  end.  While  the  Quakers 
at  Philadelphia  denounced  the  iniquity  of  war,  these 
quondam  allies  of  England  ravaged  the  frontiers  of 
Pennsylvania  and  Virginia,  and  the  northern  tribes 
that  had  gladly  come  to  Oswego  to  trade  in  1754, 
assisted  Montcalm  to  capture  and  destroy  it  in  1756. 
Reverses  in  America  were  but  part  of  the  multi 
plied  disasters  which  befell  English  arms  at  the  open 
ing  of  the  Seven  Years'  War.  At  the  close  of  the 
year  1756,  with  Hanover  threatened  and  Minorca 
taken,  with  the  Bourbon  arms  victorious  in  India 
and  the  Bourbon  fleet  unchecked  upon  the  sea,  with 
a  million  and  a  half  of  colonists  seemingly  helpless 
before  eighty  thousand  French  in  America,  it  was 
clear  at  last  that  ministers  who  employed  organized 
corruption  to  buttress  the  throne,  who  rarely  read 
the  American  dispatches,  and  were  not  quite  sure 


158  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

where  Nova  Scotia  was,  had  endangered  that  very 
peace  and  material  prosperity  with  which  they  had 
been  so  long  and  so  exclusively  occupied.  In  this 
crisis  many  plans  were  forthcoming,  at  Albany  and 
in  London,  for  colonial  union  and  imperial  defense ; 
plans  doubtless  excellent  in  themselves,  but  imprac 
ticable  under  the  circumstances.  They  were  there 
fore  laid  aside  until  the  war  should  be  over.  A  plan 
of  attack,  not  of  defense,  was  now  the  prime  neces 
sity.  In  face  of  this  necessity,  the  Whig  oligarchy 
abdicated  its  high  function  of  "  muddling  through  " 
the  business  of  government,  while  "  an  afflicted  de 
spairing  nation  turned  to  a  private  gentleman  of 
slender  fortune,  wanting  the  parade  of  birth  and  title, 
as  the  only  saviour  of  England."  "  I  know,"  said 
William  Pitt,  "  that  I  can  save  England,  and  that 
nobody  else  can." 

A  most  galling  boast  for  both  your  houses  of 
Pelham  and  Yorke,  but  a  true  one.  Within  three 
years  the  nation  was  raised  from  the  depths  of 
despair  to  the  high  level  of  its  great  leader's  assured 
and  arrogant  confidence.  It  was  not  by  colonial 
systems  that  Pitt  brought  victory,  but  by  organ 
izing  efficiency  in  place  of  corruption  and  by  in 
spiring  many  men  to  heroic  effort.  Wisdom  born 
of  sympathy  and  common  sense  soon  accomplished 
in  America  what  neither  the  bullying  of  Loudoun 
nor  the  New  Englander's  hatred  of  the  French 
could  effect.  In  1756  no  more  than  five  thousand 
troops  were  raised  in  all  New  England  and  New 
York.  Governor  Pownall  was  haggling  as  usual 
with  his  assembly  over  a  levy  of  two  thousand  men, 


ENGLAND  AND  HER  COLONIES     159 

when  there  arrived  in  Boston  Pitt's  order  that  hence 
forth  colonial  officers  should  take  rank  with  regu 
lars,  according  to  the  date  of  their  commissions. 
The  simple  order  was  worth  more  than  many  plans 
of  union.  The  very  next  morning,  when  the  dispatch 
was  read  out,  the  Old  Bay  assembly  voted  the  entire 
seven  thousand  men  originally  asked  of  the  Northern 
colonies ;  and  during  the  year  1758  nearly  twenty- 
five  thousand  provincial  troops  were  raised  for  the 
war.  With  this  support,  the  English  army  and 
fleet,  for  the  first  time  ably  led  and  efficiently 
directed,  soon  destroyed  the  power  of  France  in 
Canada :  Louisburg  was  once  more  captured ;  Crown 
Point  and  Niagara  were  taken ;  Oswego  was  rebuilt ; 
while  the  French,  deserted  by  their  savage  allies  as 
soon  as  the  English  won  victories,  destroyed  their 
own  fort  at  Duquesne ;  and  at  last  the  intrepid  Gen 
eral  Wolfe,  fortunately  aided  by  a  strange  combina 
tion  of  accidents,  scaled  the  Heights  of  Quebec 
and  defeated  the  army  of  Montcalm  on  the  Plains 
of  Abraham. 

When  the  war  was  over  and  Canada  no  longer 
the  menace  it  had  been,  men.  without  imagination, 
turning  again  to  the  schemes  which  had  been  laid 
aside  in  1756,  began  to  devise  measures  for  a  closer 
supervision  of  the  "  plantations,"  and  for  raising 
"  a  revenue  in  Your  Majesty's  dominions  in  America 
for  defraying  the  expenses  of  defending,  protecting, 
and  securing  the  same."  They  were  not  aware  that 
since  the  recall  of  the  Massachusetts  charter  the 
colonies  had  become  something  more  than  planta 
tions,  or  that  there  was  arising  on  the  continent  of 


160  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

America  a  people  whose  interests  were  national 
rather  than  imperial,  and  whose  ideals  of  well-being 
transcended  the  dead  level  of  material  ambitions. 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

For  the  settlement  of  the  Southern  and  Middle  colonies  in  this 
period,  see  Channing  History  of  the  United  States,  11,  chaps,  n,  iv; 
Andrews,  Colonial  Self-Government,  chaps,  vi-vu,  ix,  xi.  The  best 
discussion  of  the  reasons  for  a  revival  of  interest  in  the  colonies 
during  the  Restoration,  and  of  the  establishment  and  practical 
application  of  a  system  of  colonial  administration  and  control, 
is  Beer's  The  Old  Colonial  System,  Part  i,  2  vols.  See  particularly, 
I,  chaps,  i-iv.  For  this  subject,  see  also,  Channing,  n,  chaps,  i, 
vin ;  Andrews,  Colonial  Self -Government,  chaps,  i-n;  Andrews, 
British  Committees,  Commissions,  and  Councils  of  Trade  and  Plan 
tations  (Johns  Hopkins  Studies,  1908);  and  Andrews,  The  Colonial 
Period,  chap.  v.  For  the  relations  between  England  and  her  colo 
nies  in  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  see  Dickerson, 
American  Colonial  Government  (Cleveland,  1912);  Andrews,  The 
Colonial  Period,  chaps,  vi,  vin;  Greene,  Provincial  America,  chaps, 
n-iv,  xi ;  and  Beer,  British  Colonial  Policy,  chap.  i.  The  impor 
tance  of  the  West  Indies  in  determining  the  policy  of  Walpole  is 
brought  out  by  Temperley,  American  Historical  Association  Re 
ports,  1911,  vol.  i,  p.  231.  For  the  rise  of  New  France  and  the  con 
flict  of  France  and  England  in  America,  see  Fiske,  New  France  and 
New  England,  chaps,  i-n,  iv,  vm-x;  Thwaites,  France  in  America, 
chaps,  i,  iv,  vi,  vin ;  Channing,  n,  chaps,  v,  xvm-xix.  The  most 
fascinating  as  well  as  the  fullest  treatment  of  this  subject  is  con 
tained  in  the  works  of  Francis  Parkman.  His  Count  Frontenac  and 
New  France  under  Louis  XIV;  Half  Century  of  Conflict,  2  vols.,  and 
Montcalm  and  Wolfe,  2  vols.,  make  a  fairly  continuous  history  of 
the  subject  from  1672  to  1763. 


CHAPTER   V 

THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE    IN    THE   EIGHTEENTH 
CENTURY 

America  is  formed  for  happiness  but  not  for  empire. 

RICHARD  BURNABY. 

At  length  one  mentioned  me,  with  the  observation  that  I  was  merely 
an  honest  man,  and  of  no  sect  at  all,  which  prevailed  with  them  to 
chuse  me. 

BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


ALL  accounts  agree  in  celebrating  the  marvelous 
growth  of  the  continental  colonies  in  the  eighteenth 
century.  When  the  Massachusetts  charter  was  re 
called  they  were  in  fact  British  "  plantations  "  ;  weak 
and  scattered  coast  settlements,  hemmed  in  by  hos 
tile  Indians,  separated  from  each  other  by  long 
stretches  of  wilderness;  without  the  inclination  or 
the  opportunity  for  intercourse,  they  struggled  in 
isolation,  often  for  bare  existence.  At  the  time  of 
the  passage  of  the  Stamp  Act  they  were  wealthy 
and  stable  communities,  whose  thrifty  and  venture 
some  people  had  long  since  joined  colony  to  colony 
all  along  the  coast,  and  were  already  pushing  across 
the  mountains  to  occupy  the  great  interior  valleys. 
And  with  rapid  material  development  there  had 
come  a  confident  and  aggressive  spirit,  a  proud  and 
intractable  temper,  a  certain  self-righteous  sense  of 
separation  from  the  Old  World  and  its  traditions. 


162  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

The  very  rivalries  between  colony  and  colony  were 
the  result  of  close  contact  and  daily  intercourse, 
their  very  jealousies  born  of  interrelated  interests 
and  the  recognition  of  a  common  destiny. 

In  1689  not  more  than  80,000  people  lived  in  New 
England,  a  trifle  more  in  the  Southern,  and  half  as 
many  in  the  Middle  colonies.  Seventy  years  later, 
when  all  New  France  could  not  boast  more  than 
80,000  people  of  European  birth  or  descent,  New 
England  alone  had  a  population  of  473,000,  the 
Middle  Colonies  about  405,000,  and  the  plantations 
south  of  Delaware  417,000,  not  including  300,000 
negro  slaves.  Within  three  quarters  of  a  century 
the  people  of  the  continental  colonies  had  increased 
nearly  eightfold  —  from  200,000  in  1689,  to  1,500,- 
000  in  1760.  And  material  prosperity  had  kept  pace 
with  the  increase  in  population  ;  so  that  there  was 
some  truth,  even  if  some  exaggeration,  in  the  state 
ment  of  Peter  Kalm  that  "  the  English  colonies 
in  this  part  of  the  world  have  increased  so  much  in 
their  numbers  of  inhabitants,  and  in  their  riches, 
that  they  almost  vie  with  Old  England." 

Of  this  rapid  growth  the  colonists  were  well  aware. 
They  took  to  themselves  full  credit,  as  their  descend 
ants  have  done  ever  since,  for  having  transformed  a 
wilderness  into  a  land  of  peace  and  plenty.  With 
Kichard  Burnaby  they  could  quite  agree  that  such  a 
town  as  Philadelphia,  planted  scarce  eighty  years, 
must  be  the  "  object  of  every  one's  wonder  and  ad 
miration."  It  was  this  sense  of  unparalleled  achieve 
ment  that  gave  courageous  conviction  to  the  steady 
assertion  of  colonial  rights.  And  the  form  of  govern- 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY       163 

ment  in  the  provinces  was  well  suited  to  secure  for 
the  colonists  that  independence  which  they  claimed 
as  a  birthright,  and  the  practical  achievement  of 
which  is  the  cardinal  political  fact  of  the  century. 
For  it  was  no  part  of  British  policy  to  burden  the 
English  exchequer  with  the  maintenance  of  the  colo 
nial  establishments.  The  normal  province  was  thought 
to  be  one  in  which  legislation  was  entrusted  mainly 
to  local  assemblies  elected  by  the  colonists,  while  ex 
ecutive  and  administrative  authority  rested  mainly 
with  a  governor  and  council  responsible  to  the  king. 
At  the  opening  of  the  eighteenth  century,  colonial 
governments  mostly  conformed  to  this  model :  in 
each  colony  the  owners  of  property  regularly  elected 
an  assembly  which  levied  taxes  and  made  laws  ;  in 
each  colony,  except  in  Rhode  Island  and  Connecti 
cut,  the  governor,  and  usually  the  council  as  well, 
were  appointed  by  the  Crown. 

With  authority  thus  divided,  conflict  was  sure  to 
arise.  In  theory,  the  interests  of  colony  and  Crown 
may  have  been  identical ;  in  fact  the  assemblies 
looked  at  the  affairs  of  the  colony  from  the  point  of 
view  of  immediate  local  needs,  while  the  governor 
was  bound  by  his  instructions  to  regard  his  province 
as  but  one  of  many  whose  special  interests  must  be 
subordinated  to  the  welfare  of  the  whole  empire.  Of 
the  assemblies'  many  advantages  in  this  perennial  con 
flict,  control  of  the  purse  was  the  chief.  "  The  gov 
ernor,"  says  a  contemporary,  "  has  two  masters  ;  one 
who  gives  him  his  commission,  and  one  who  gives 
him  his  pay."  It  required  no  little  courage,  and  was 
likely  to  prove  useless  in  the  end,  to  ignore  the  latter 


164  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

master  in  obedience  to  the  former.  Placemen  were 
little  inclined  to  irritate  those  who  paid  them  and 
were  on  the  spot  to  watch  their  every  move ;  while 
even  the  ablest  governors  often  found  themselves  de 
serted  by  the  Crown  whose  interests  they  attempted 
to  defend.  Before  the  middle  of  the  century  minis 
ters  were  generally  indifferent  to  the  constitutional 
tendencies  in  the  colonies ;  repeated  recommendations 
of  the  Board  of  Trade  for  an  independent  civil  list 
went  unheeded,  and  governors,  such  as  Spotswood, 
who  stirred  up  trouble  by  endeavoring  to  carry  out 
their  instructions,  were  likely  to  be  replaced  by  others 
whose  adroit  concessions  to  the  assemblies  created  the 
illusion  of  a  successful  administration. 

The  concrete  disputes  in  which  the  persistent  op' 
position  of  governor  and  assembly  found  expression 
were  many  —  quit-rents  in  Maryland,  control  of 
the  judges  in  New  York,  taxation  of  proprietor's 
estates  in  Pennsylvania,  and  everywhere  questions 
growing  out  of  the  problem  of  defense  and  the 
demand  for  paper  money.  Instructed  in  English 
precedent,  the  assemblies  knew  well  how  to  condi 
tion  the  grant  of  salary  or  necessary  revenue  upon 
the  governor's  surrender  to  their  demands.  But 
more  insidious  and  far-reaching  in  its  constitutional 
effects  was  the  practice  by  which  the  governor's  ex 
ecutive  and  administrative  functions  were  restricted. 
Money  bills,  even  when  unconnected  with  special 
riders,  were  often  made  minutely  specific,  both  in 
respect  to  the  purposes  for  which  the  money  was  to 
be  used,  and  in  respect  to  the  officials  by  whom  it 
was  to  be  expended.  Even  salaries  in  the  army  were 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY       165 

sometimes  granted  by  individual  appropriation.  In 
many  colonies,  and  notably  in  New  York,  it  was  by 
the  constant  and  excessive  use  of  specific  appropria 
tions  that  the  governors  were  reduced  to  the  level  of 
executive  figureheads  —  mere  agents  of  the  colonial 
assembly  rather  than  representatives  of  the  Crown  ex 
ercising  wise  and  effective  administrative  discretion. 
This  process  was  especially  rapid  during  the  French 
wars,  when  the  assemblies  were  enabled  to  exact 
tremendous  concessions  in  return  for  indispensable 
aid  against  the  common  enemy.  "  The  New  York 
Assembly,"  said  Peter  Kalm  about  1750,  "  may  be 
looked  upon  as  a  Parliament  or  Diet  in  miniature. 
Everything  relating  to  the  good  of  the  province  is 
here  debated."  In  1763  he  might  have  said  the  same, 
not  of  New  York  alone,  but  of  Massachusetts  and 
Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  and  Virginia.  And  the 
governors  of  these  provinces  could  have  told  him,  as 
they  repeatedly  told  the  Board  of  Trade,  that  not 
only  was  everything  debated  there,  but  there  every 
thing  was  finally  decided. 

The  assemblies,  which  had  thus  so  largely  taken  to 
themselves  the  functions  of  government,  claimed  to 
declare  the  rights  and  defend  the  interests  of  the 
people.  But  in  fact  they  represented  their  colonies 
very  much  as  Parliament  represented  England.  In 
every  colony  a  property  test  restricted  the  number  of 
those  who  had  a  voice  in  the  elections ;  while  politi 
cal  methods  and  the  traditions  of  society  united  to 
place  effective  control  in  the  hands  of  the  eminent 
few.  No  secret  ballot  or  Australian  system  guarded 
the  independence  of  the  voter.  It  was  not  an  age  in 


166  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

which  every  individual  was  supposed  to  count  for  one 
and  none  for  more  than  one.  The  rigid  maintenance 
of  class  distinctions,  even  in  New  England,  where 
students  in  Harvard  College  were  seated  according  to 
social  rank  and  John  Adams  was  but  fourteenth  in 
a  class  of  twenty-four,  made  it  presumptuous  for  the 
ordinary  man  to  dispute  the  opinion  of  his  betters  or 
contest  their  right  to  leadership :  to  look  up  to  his 
superiors  and  take  his  cue  from  them  was  regarded 
as  the  sufficient  exercise  of  political  liberty.  The 
times  were  thought  to  be  out  of  joint  when  effective 
control  of  colonial  politics  rested  not  with  a  few  men 
who,  through  wealth  or  social  standing,  through  of 
ficial  position,  through  well-considered  marriage  con 
nections,  had  built  up  the  rival  or  consolidated  "  in 
terests  "  which  played,  each  on  its  little  stage,  the 
part  of  Bedford  or  Pelham  or  Yorke  in  Old  England. 
The  foundation  of  this  miniature  aristocracy  was 
wealth ;  wealth  acquired  in  the  South  mainly  from 
the  great  plantations,  in  the  North  mainly  from  com 
merce.  In  South  Carolina  the  unhealthful  swamp 
lands,  driving  the  planters  to  the  coast  during  most 
of  the  year,  made  Charleston  one  of  the  first  com 
mercial  centers  of  America.  Three  hundred  and  sixty 
vessels  cleared  from  that  port  in  1764.  Manigault 
and  Mazyck,  Laurens  and  Rutledge,  were  therefore 
merchants  of  note  as  well  as  planters,  exporting  pro 
visions  to  the  West  Indies,  the  staples  rice  and  indigo 
to  England  or  to  the  Continent  south  of  Finisterre, 
and  bringing  back  slaves  and  English  manufactures. 
In  Virginia  and  Maryland,  where  there  were  no  cities 
of  importance,  the  planters  turned  all  their  profits 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY       167 

into  slaves  and  land.  The  second  William  Byrd,  in 
heriting  26,000  acres,  left  to  his  son  179,000  acres 
of  the  best  land  in  Virginia,  and  the  right  to  repre 
sent  his  county  in  the  assembly.  All  the  great  plant 
ers,  Ludlow  and  Carter,  Randolph,  Fairfax  and  Blair, 
lived  on  their  estates,  and  from  their  private  wharves 
exported  the  tobacco  which  English  commission  mer 
chants  sold  in  London,  and  for  which  they  sent  in 
return  such  English  commodities  of  all  kinds  as  the 
planter  might  order.  The  great  estates  along  the 
Hudson,  owned  by  men  like  Van  Rensselaer,  a  de 
scendant  of  the  old  Dutch  patroon,  or  Phillipse  and 
Courtland  and  Livingston,  who  had  profited  by  the 
lavish  grants  of  early  English  governors,  rivaled  in 
extent  the  plantations  of  Virginia;  and  like  the 
planters  of  South  Carolina  their  owners  were  often 
engaged  in  commerce,  and  were  connected,  through 
business  or  marriage,  with  the  wealthy  merchant 
families  of  New  York  City  —  the  Van  Dams,  Cru- 
gers,  Waltons,  and  Ludlows. 

Elsewhere  in  America  there  were  not,  as  in  these 
provinces,  great  estates  ranging  from  two  hundred 
thousand  to  more  than  a  million  acres.  But  the  thrifty 
Quakers  of  eastern  Pennsylvania,  engaging  in  less  ex 
tensive  enterprises,  were  less  often  in  debt  than  the 
planters  of  the  South,  and  no  less  shrewd  at  a  bar 
gain  than  the  Dutch  merchants  of  New  York.  Pos 
sessed  of  the  best  land  in  the  province,  or  engaged 
at  Philadelphia  in  the  export  of  provisions  to  the 
West  Indies,  they  built  up  many  respectable  estates 
among  them,  and  by  effective  organization  the  lead 
ers  of  the  sect  controlled  the  colony  for  many  decades 


168  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

in  the  interest  of  a  Quaker-merchant  aristocracy  in 
habiting  the  three  eastern  counties  of  the  province. 
And  even  in  New  England  material  interests  were 
transforming  the  structure  of  society.  Slave-owning 
planters  of  Newport  now  dominated  the  little  colony 
which  Roger  Williams  had  established  as  an  experi 
ment  in  democracy  and  soul  liberty.  Boston  shared 
with  New  York  and  Philadelphia  the  export  of  pro 
visions  with  which  the  farms  of  the  Middle  and 
Northern  colonies  supplied  the  West  Indies.  It  was 
the  chief  center  of  the  New  England  fisheries.  Ship 
building  was  there,  as  at  Newport,  a  great  industry  ; 
and  there,  as  at  Newport,  rum  was  extensively  dis 
tilled  from  molasses  procured  in  the  sugar  islands. 
The  vessels  of  Boston  and  Newport  merchants,  loaded 
with  rum  and  fish  and  tropical  products,  traded  in 
many  European  ports,  in  the  Azores,  or  on  the  Afri 
can  coast,  returning  with  wine  and  slaves  and  every 
kind  of  English  manufacture.  In  this  material  at 
mosphere  the  old  Puritan  spirit  was  being  strangely 
subdued  to  the  stuff  it  worked  in.  Wealth  and  shrewd 
ness  were  more  effective  than  orthodoxy  in  achieving 
social  and  political  eminence.  A  few  names  familiar 
to  the  seventeenth  century  are  still  to  be  met  with 
in  high  places  —  Sewall,  Dudley,  Quincy,  Hutchin- 
son ;  but  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  the 
names  of  repute  in  the  Old  Bay  colony  are  mostly 
new  —  Oliver,  Bowdoin,  Boylston,  Cooper,  Phillips, 
dishing,  Thatcher ;  names  rescued  from  obscurity  by 
men  who  had  won  distinction  in  the  pulpit  or  at  the 
bar,  or  by  men  who  had  made  money  in  trade,  and 
whose  descendants,  marrying  with  the  old  clerical  or 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY       169 

official  families,  had  pushed  their  way,  in  the  second 
or  third  generation,  into  the  social  and  political  aris 
tocracy  of  the  province. 

Such  were  the  "  men  of  considerable  estates  "  in 
whose  hands  the  English  Government  was  generally 
well  content  to  leave  the  control  of  colonial  politics ; 
and  as  they  were  the  men  who  profited  most  by  the 
connection  with  England,  they  were  the  men  whose 
outlook  upon  the  world  was  least  provincial  and  most 
European.  Planters  and  merchants  of  the  South, 
exporting  their  staples  directly  to  England,  were  in 
constant  communication  with  their  London  agents. 
Business  or  politics  had  taken  many  of  them  more 
than  once  across  the  ocean.  Not  a  few  had  been  sent 
in  their  youth  to  be  educated  in  England;  and  had 
resided  there  for  some  years,  forming  acquaintance 
with  prominent  English  families,  listening  to  debates 
in  the  Commons  or  to  arguments  in  the  courts  of 
law,  diverting  themselves  in  theaters  and  coffee 
houses,  acquiring  the  latest  modes  and  mannerisms, 
moulding  themselves  upon  some  favorite  model  of  a 
city  magnate  or  country  gentleman.  In  the  North 
ern  colonies,  trade  relations  with  England  were  less 
direct.  Business  rarely  called  the  merchant  to  Europe ; 
and  Yale  or  Harvard  was  regarded  as  a  satisfactory 
substitute  for  Oxford  or  Cambridge.  Yet  the  mer 
chants  of  Boston  and  New  York  had  their  agents  in 
many  European  ports ;  kept  informed  of  conditions 
of  trade  and  shipping  throughout  the  world;  and 
eagerly  scanned  the  foreign  gazettes  which  recounted 
the  political  and  social  happenings  of  Old  England. 
In  North  and  South,  the  well-to-do,  as  they  were 


170  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

able,  built  and  furnished  their  houses  upon  English 
models,  and  were  not  content  with  modes  of  dress 
which  were  known,  twelve  months  late,  not  to  be 
the  fashion  abroad.  Especially  fortunate  were  those 
whose  wealth  was  dignified  by  distinction  of  birth, 
the  walls  of  whose  houses  were  hung  with  oil  por 
traits  of  eminent  ancestors. 

And  the  genuine  colonial  aristocrat,  such  as  Colonel 
Byrd  or  Governor  Thomas  Hutchinson,  was  proud 
to  have  it  thought  that  his  mind  as  well  as  his  house 
was  furnished  after  the  best  English  fashion.  Even 
more  than  others,  those  who  were  condemned  to  be 
provincials  of  the  province  consciously  endeavored  to 
avoid  provincialism  of  the  spirit ;  to  be  mistaken  in 
London  for  an  English  gentleman  of  parts  was  a 
much-sought  compensation  for  being,  at  Williams- 
burg  or  Boston,  no  more  than  the  first  gentleman  of 
America.  In  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
eccentricity  was  not  yet  a  mark  of  genius ;  and  the 
"best  people  in  the  colonies"  learned  from  English 
authors  what  high  intellectual  merit  there  was  in 
being  close  to  the  center.  "Your  authors  know  but 
little  of  the  fame  they  have  on  this  side  of  the  ocean," 
Franklin  assured  William  Strahan  when  he  wrote 
to  order  six  sets  of  a  new  edition  of  Pope's  works. 
The  four  thousand  volumes  at  Westover,  or  the 
books  in  Governor  Hutchinson's  Boston  house,  would 
have  given  any  cultivated  Englishman  a  reputation 
for  good  taste  and  discriminating  judgment.  Colonel 
Byrd  could  as  readily  as  Voltaire  detect  in  the  fan 
tastic  beliefs  of  an  American  savage  "  the  three  great 
articles  of  Natural  Religion."  We  find  the  youth- 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY       171 

ful  Adams,  who  read  Bolingbroke  for  his  style  and 
laboriously  copied  out  Berkeley  and  Tillotson,  enter 
ing  the  lists  of  "  moderns  "  to  defend  the  advantages 
of  eighteenth-century  Boston  against  those  of  Rome 
in  the  age  of  Tully,  renouncing,  with  the  assurance 
of  Locke,  and  with  some  of  his  phrases,  the  outworn 
fallacy  of  innate  ideas,  and  naively  confiding  to  his 
journal,  after  the  manner  of  Diderot,  that  a  man 
born  blind  would  have  never  a  notion  of  color. 
Franklin  was  only  the  most  distinguished  of  those 
who  read  with  pleasure  the  Queen  Anne  poets  and 
essayists,  who  learned  in  Tillotson  that  theology 
might  be  compatible  with  reason  and  common  sense, 
or  in  Shaftesbury  that  an  enlightened  free-thinker 
might  still  be  a  gentleman  and  a  man  of  virtue. 
Among  the  cultivated  and  the  well-bred  it  was  no 
more  than  good  form  to  open  the  mind  to  all  the 
tolerant  liberalisms  of  the  age;  and  no  one  in  the 
colonies  lost  caste  who  endeavored,  in  the  manner  if 
not  in  the  substance  of  his  thinking,  to  achieve  the 
polished  urbanity  of  those  Englishmen  who  made  a 
point  of  being  scholars  without  a  touch  of  pedantry, 
and  men  of  virtue  without  the  taint  of  prejudice. 

Yet  few  of  these  emancipated  citizens  of  the  world 
had  permitted  the  dissolvent  philosophy  of  the  cen 
tury  to  enter  the  very  pith  and  fiber  of  their  mental 
quality.  For  the  rich  and  the  well-born  it  was  rather 
an  imported  fashion,  an  attractive  drapery  laid  over 
the  surface  of  minds  that  were  conventional  down  to 
the  ground,  the  modish  mental  recreation  of  men  who 
lived  by  custom  and  guided  their  steps  in  the  well- 
worn  paths  of  precedent.  In  America,  as  in  England, 


172  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

as  in  France  itself,  the  formulae  of  radicalism  were 
well  pronounced  by  many  whose  hearts  grew  faint 
at  the  first  rude  contact  with  the  thing  itself.  And 
of  all  the  phrases  of  that  age,  the  ones  best  suited 
to  the  temper  and  purposes  of  the  colonial  aristocra 
cies,  and  understood  by  them  with  reservations  the 
most  characteristically  English,  were  those  employed 
by  Locke  to  justify  the  natural  right  of  Englishmen 
to  become  free  while  remaining  unequal.  The  colo 
nials  of  substantial  estates,  long  occupied  in  their 
assemblies  in  resisting  the  governor's  authority, 
thought  of  themselves  often  enough  as  but  rehears 
ing  the  traditional  conflict  between  Crown  and  Par- 
liament.  Like  their  prototypes  they  identified  the 
rights  of  property  with  natural  right,  and  translated 
political  liberty  in  terms  of  prescriptive  privilege. 
The  rights  of  man  and  the  rights  of  Englishmen 
were  thus  thought  to  be  synonymous  terms :  a  happy 
confusion  by  which  it  was  possible  for  them  to  de 
fend  liberty  against  the  encroachments  of  their  equals 
in  England,  without  sharing  it  with  their  inferiors  in 
the  colonies. 

II 

"  My  ancestors,"  says  Devereaux  Jarrett,  who  was 
born  on  a  small  plantation  in  New  Kent  County, 
Virginia,  about  1733,  "  had  the  character  of  honesty 
and  industry,  by  which  they  lived  in  credit  among 
their  neighbors,  free  from  real  want,  and  above  the 
frowns  of  the  world.  This  was  also  the  habit  in 
which  my  parents  were.  They  always  had  plenty  of 
plain  food  and  raiment,  suitable  to  their  humble  sta- 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY       173 

tion.  We  made  no  use  of  tea  or  coffee  ;  meat,  bread, 
and  milk  was  the  ordinary  food  of  all  my  acquaint 
ance.  I  suppose  the  richer  sort  might  make  use  of 
those  and  other  luxuries,  but  to  such  people  we  had 
no  access.  We  were  accustomed  to  look  upon  what 
were  called  gentle  folks  as  beings  of  a  superior  or 
der.  For  my  part,  I  was  quite  shy  of  them,  and  kept 
off  at  a  humble  distance.  A  periwig  in  those  days, 
was  a  distinguishing  badge  of  gentle  folk.  Such  ideas 
of  the  difference  between  gentle  and  simple,  were,  I 
believe,  universal  among  all  my  rank  and  age." 

The  distinction  between  gentle  and  simple  was 
doubtless  less  absolute  than  the  disillusioned  Jarrett 
represents  it  to  have  been.  Even  in  the  South  there 
were  many  gradations  of  wealth,  and  it  was  no  un 
common  thing  for  a  man  to  rise,  as  Jarrett  did 
himself,  from  mean  birth  to  a  considerable  eminence. 
Yet  in  none  of  the  colonies  was  the  distinction  alto 
gether  unreal.  The  mass  of  the  voters,  —  small  free 
hold  farmers  in  the  country  and  "  freemen  "  in  some 
of  the  towns,  —  holding  themselves  superior  to  the 
unfranchised,  yet  not  claiming  equality  with  the  fa 
vored  few ;  the  tenant  farmer  or  small  shopkeeper, 
deferring  to  the  freeholder  and  the  freeman,  but 
aware  that  fortune  had  placed  him  above  the  artisan 
and  day  laborer ;  the  artisan  and  the  day  laborer, 
proud  that  none  could  call  them  "servant":  —  these 
were  the  simple  folk  who  in  all  the  colonies  made 
the  great  majority  of  free  citizens.  Chiefly  occupied 
with  earning  daily  bread  by  the  labor  of  their  hands, 
many  were  content  to  escape  the  debtor's  prison,  the 
best  well  satisfied  with  a  modest  competence.  They 


174  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

heard  of  countries  beyond  sea,  but  their  outlook  was 
bounded  by  the  parish.  The  provincialism  of  their 
minds  was  not  dispelled  by  communion  with  the 
classics  of  all  ages,  and  no  cheap  magazine  or  popu 
lar  novel  came  to  dull  the  edge  of  native  shrewdness 
or  curiosity.  They  read  not  at  all,  or  they  read  the 
Bible,  the  Paradise  Lost  or  the  Pilgrim* 's  Progress, 
or  some  chance  book  of  sermons  or  of  theology,  or 
book  of  English  ballads.  Periwigs  and  gold  braid 
were  not  for  them,  nor  was  it  any  part  of  their  am 
bition  to  enter  the  charmed  circle  of  polite  society, 
to  associate  on  terms  of  equality  with  the  "best 
people  "  in  the  colony. 

Yet  with  whatever  semblance  the  older  settlements 
might  take  on  the  character  of  European  civilization, 
America  was  bound  to  be  the  land  of  opportunity  so 
long  as  there  was  abundance  of  free  land  to  entice 
the  ambitious  and  the  dispossessed.  Early  in  the  cen 
tury,  as  good  land  became  scarce  in  the  older  towns  of 
New  England,  and  proprietors  began  to  deny  the  com 
mons  to  the  landless,  venturesome  and  discontented 
men,  accepting  the  challenge  of  a  savage-infested 
wilderness,  moved  northward  along  the  rivers  into 
Maine  and  New  Hampshire,  or  beyond  the  original 
Connecticut  settlements  into  the  valley  of  the  Housa- 
tonic.  Here  land  was  less  often  than  formerly  dis 
posed  of  to  groups  of  proprietors  intent  to  maintain 
the  traditions  of  town  and  church ;  acquired  by  the 
older  towns  or  by  land  agents,  it  was  more  often 
sold  to  companies  or  to  individuals  for  the  profit  it 
would  bring.  The  famous  New  Hampshire  grants, 
one  hundred  and  thirty  townships  in  the  present  State 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY       175 

of  Vermont,  fell  mainly  to  speculators  who  sold  to  the 
highest  bidder,  covenanted  and  uncovenanted  alike, 
among  the  throng  of  home-seekers  who  pushed  into 
this  western  country  in  the  seventh  decade  of  the 
century.  Long  before  the  Revolution  opened,  there 
thus  existed  in  New  England  a  fringe  of  pioneer 
settlements  —  such  as  Vassalboro  and  Durham  on 
the  Androscoggin  and  the  Kennebec,  Concord  and 
Hinsdale  on  the  Merrimac  and  the  Connecticut,  Pitts- 
field  and  Great  Barrington  on  the  Housatonic  —  which 
formed  a  newer  New  England,  less  lettered  and  scrip 
tural  than  the  old,  where  class  distinctions  were  little 
known,  where  contact  with  the  Indian  and  the  wil 
derness  had  added  a  secular  ruthlessness  and  inge 
nuity  to  the  harsh  Puritan  temper,  and  where  the 
individual,  freed  from  an  effective  "village  moral 
police,"  learned  in  the  rough  school  of  nature  a  new 
kind  of  conformity  unknown  to  the  ancient  Hebrew 
code. 

In  the  Middle  and  Southern  colonies,  even  more 
than  in  New  England,  expansion  of  population  into 
the  interior  was  a  notable  feature  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  In  1700  the  estate  of  William  Byrd  at  the 
James  River  Falls  was  on  the  Indian  frontier ;  North 
Carolina  was  unoccupied  south  of  Alber marie  Sound 
or  west  of  the  Nottaway  River ;  there  were  few  set 
tlers  in  South  Carolina  north  of  the  Santee,  or  south 
or  west  of  it  except  the  Charleston  planters  who  had 
appropriated  all  the  land  within  sixty  miles  of  the 
coast  and  within  twenty  of  every  navigable  river. 
Sixty  years  later  the  unoccupied  coast  regions  were 
settled,  and  the  surplus  population  of  Virginia  and 


176  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

Maryland,  excluded  from  the  tide-water  by  the  en 
grossers  of  great  estates,  or  oppressed  by  its  restricted 
social  conditions,  had  occupied  the  cheap  lands  of 
eastern  North  Carolina,  or,  following  the  James  and 
the  Rappahannock,  had  settled  in  the  up-country  be 
tween  the  "  Fall  Line  "  and  the  Blue  Ridge.  Cattle- 
raisers,  learning  from  Indian  traders  of  the  fertile 
interior,  followed  the  trails  with  their  "  cowperis," 
which  in  turn  gave  place  to  permanent  farms.  In 
this  back  country,  the  great  plantation  was  not 
often  found,  and  slavery  played  little  part.  There 
were  few  superiors  where  farms  were  comparatively 
small,  and  where  most  men  worked  with  their  hands 
and  consumed  provisions  raised  by  their  own  labor. 
Of  those  who  came  from  the  older  settlements  to 
occupy  the  up-country,  many  were  "  such  as  have 
been  transported  hither  as  servants,  and  being  out 
of  their  time  .  .  .  settle  themselves  where  land  is  to 
be  taken  up  that  will  produce  the  necessities  of  life 
with  little  labor."  William  Byrd  described  with 
engaging  wit  the  ne'er-do-wells  who  maintained  a 
precarious  existence  below  the  Dividing  Line  ;  and 
Governor  Spotswood  deplored  the  shiftless  servants 
who  lived  on  the  Virginia  frontier.  Yet  we  may  sup 
pose  that  freedom  often  transformed  the  idle  bonds 
man  into  an  industrious  freeholder.  Nor  were  all  the 
settlers  of  the  Virginia  back  country  emancipated 
servants.  In  1732  Peter  Jefferson  patented  a  thou 
sand  acres  at  the  foot  of  the  Blue  Ridge  Mountains. 
It  was  in  this  frontier  community  above  the  Fall  Line 
that  Patrick  Henry  and  Thomas  Jefferson  were  born ; 
here  they  grew  to  manhood ;  here  they  were  inspired 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY       177 

with  those  ideals  of  society  so  inimical  alike  to  the 
imperial  designs  of  the  British  Government  and  to 
the  complacent  pretensions  of  the  slave-owning  aris 
tocracies  of  the  tide-water. 

Yet  the  first  distinctive  American  frontier  was  not 
created  alone  by  the  movement  of  population  west 
ward  from  the  older  settlements ;  like  every  succes 
sive  frontier  in  our  history,  it  became  the  mecca  of 
emigrants  from  British  and  continental  lands.  Be 
fore  1700,  exiled  Huguenots  and  refugees  from  the 
Palatinate  began  to  seek  the  New  World ;  and  dur 
ing  the  eighteenth  century  men  of  non-English  stock 
poured  by  the  thousands  into  the  up-country  of 
Pennsylvania  and  of  the  South.  In  1700  the  foreign 
population  in  the  colonies  was  slight ;  in  1775  it 
is  estimated  that  225,000  Germans  and  385,000 
Scotch-Irish,  together  nearly  one  fifth  of  the  entire 
population,  lived  within  the  provinces  that  won  in 
dependence.  Persecution  and  the  ravages  of  war, 
taxes  that  were  heavy  at  any  time  and  intolerable 
in  time  of  famine,  were  among  the  causes  that  dis 
posed  many  thousands  of  Protestant  families  from 
Ulster,  and  from  the  thickly  populated  districts  of 
Switzerland  and  the  Rhine  country,  to  seek  new 
homes  in  a  land  of  better  promise.  To  cross  the 
ocean  was  no  slight  undertaking  for  unlettered  and 
home-keeping  people.  But  since  the  founding  of 
Pennsylvania  knowledge  of  America  had  spread 
among  the  peasants  of  Germany,  and  there  was  no 
lack  of  "  Neulanders  "  —  the  emigrant  agents  of  that 
day  —  who  described  the  New  World  in  glowing 
terms,  and  stood  ready  for  a  consideration  to  carry 


178  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

any  who  wished  to  be  transported  to  its  shores.  And 
the  way  was  facilitated  by  the  English  and  colonial 
Governments:  to  forestall  the  French  in  settling 
the  interior,  secure  the  trade  of  the  Indians  in  time 
of  peace,  and  erect  a  barrier  against  them  in  time  of 
war,  foreigners  were  accorded  naturalization,  land 
was  offered  on  easy  terms,  and  toleration  granted  to 
all  Protestant  sects. 

Foreigners  were  not  attracted  to  New  England, 
where  the  Puritans  scrutinized  all  newcomers  with 
a  jealous  eye ;  while  New  York  was  avoided  on  ac 
count  of  the  unhappy  experience  of  Governor  Hun 
ter's  Palatines  and  the  refusal  of  the  great  land 
owners  along  the  Hudson  to  grant  freehold  title. 
Most  of  the  Germans,  seeking  homes  in  the  best 
advertised  and  most  German  of  all  the  colonies, 
landed  at  the  port  of  Philadelphia.  Germantown  had 
been  founded  by  Francis  Daniel  Pastorius  in  1683, 
but  it  was  not  until  forty  years  later,  after  the  dev 
astating  wars  of  the  Spanish  Succession,  that  his 
countrymen  occupied  in  force  the  neighboring  coun 
ties  of  Lancaster,  Montgomery,  and  Bucks,  pushed 
up  into  Lehigh  and  Northampton,  and  across  the 
Susquehanna  into  Cumberland  and  Adams.  Much 
to  their  surprise,  doubtless,  for  it  was  scarcely  the 
business  of  the  emigrant  agent  to  inform  them,  they 
learned  that  land  in  this  German  mecca  sold  for 
from  £10  to  X15  per  hundred  acres,  and  bore  a 
quit-rent  of  one  halfpenny.  Many  occupied  the  land 
as  squatters,  and  it  is  estimated  that  400,000  acres 
were  settled  without  title  between  1732  and  1740. 
But  the  newcomers  or  their  children  soon  learned  of 


owth  of  English  Settlements,  1700-J760 
Based  upon  map  in  Channing'8  History  of  the 


United  States,  II,  p.  604.  The  Macmillan  Co 


Longitude     West     79°       from     Greenwich 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY       179 

better  opportunities  to  the  south,  where  Maryland 
land  sold  for  from  X2  to  X5  per  hundred  acres,  and 
the  up-country  forestallers,  such  as  Carter  and  Bev- 
erley,  under-sold  the  Pennsylvania  land  office  in 
order  to  attract  settlers.  As  early  as  1726  the  stream 
of  German  migration  began,  therefore,  to  move  along 
the  mountain  slopes  to  the  south  and  west.  During 
the  middle  decades  of  the  century,  they  occupied  in 
increasing  numbers  the  Piedmont  of  Virginia,  crept 
southward  along  the  west  side  of  the  Blue  Kidge  in 
the  Shenandoah  Valley,  and  out  into  the  up-country 
of  the  Carolinas  west  of  the  great  Pine  Barrens. 

At  the  same  time  as  the  Germans,  and  in  even 
greater  numbers,  came  the  Scotch  and  Scotch-Irish, 
mostly  disappointed  settlers  in  Ulster  who  found 
land  titles  insecure  there  and  the  promise  of  reli 
gious  liberty  unfulfilled.  A  few,  not  easily  discour 
aged,  came  to  the  Berkshires  and  the  New  Hamp 
shire  hills  ;  more  occupied  the  Mohawk  and  Cherry 
Valleys  of  New  York ;  the  great  majority,  like  the 
Germans,  settled  in  Pennsylvania  and  the  up-country 
of  the  South.  In  Pennsylvania,  they  went  for  the 
most  part  beyond  the  German  frontier,  occupying 
the  country  from  Lancaster  to  Bedford,  the  Juniata 
Valley  and  the  Redstone  country,  and  in  the  dec 
ades  before  the  Revolution,  attracted  by  free  lands 
west  of  the  Alleghanies,  as  far  as  Pittsburg  on  the 
upper  Ohio.  Like  the  Germans  they  pushed  south 
into  the  Piedmont  of  Virginia,  and  along  the  Alle- 
ghany  slope  of  the  Shenandoah,  and  into  the  South 
ern  up-country  as  far  as  the  Savannah  River.  Some 
times  mixing  with  the  Germans,  the  main  body  of 


180  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

the  Scotch-Irish  was  everywhere  farther  west.  Too 
martial  to  fear  the  Indians,  and  too  aggressive  to 
live  at  peace  with  them,  they  were  the  true  border 
ers  of  the  century,  the  frontier  of  the  frontier,  form 
ing,  from  Londonderry  in  New  England  to  the  Sa 
vannah,  an  outer  bulwark,  behind  which  the  older 
settlements,  and  even  the  peace-loving  Germans 
themselves,  rested  in  some  measure  of  security. 

The  German  or  Scotch-Irish  immigrant  was  doubt 
less  grateful  to  the  Government  which  offered  him 
a  refuge ;  but  in  the  breast  of  neither  was  there  any 
sentimental  loyalty  to  King  George,  or  much  sym 
pathy  with  the  traditions  of  English  society.  Whether 
Mennonite  or  Moravian,  German  Lutheran  or  Scotch 
Presbyterian,  they  were  men  whose  manner  of  life 
disposed  them  to  an  instinctive  belief  in  equality  of 
condition,  whose  religion  confirmed  them  in  a  demo 
cratic  habit  of  mind.  That  every  man  should  labor 
as  he  was  able ;  that  no  man  should  live  by  another's 
toil  or  waste  in  luxurious  living  the  hard-earned 
fruits  of  industry;  that  all  should  live  upright  lives, 
eschewing  the  vanities  of  the  world,  and  worshiping 
God,  neither  with  images  nor  vestments  nor  Romish 
ritual,  but  in  spirit  and  in  truth :  —  these  were  the 
ideals  which  the  foreign  Protestants  brought  as  a 
heritage  from  Wittenberg  and  Geneva  to  their  new 
home  in  America.  And  if  we  may  accept  the  im 
pressions  of  an  English  observer,  life  in  the  Shen- 
andoah  Valley  was  in  happy  accord,  in  the  middle 
of  the  century,  with  the  arcadian  simplicity  of  these 
ideals.  "  I  could  not  but  reflect  with  pleasure  on  the 
situation  of  these  people,"  says  Richard  Burnaby. 


German  Settlements 

and  Frontier  Line 

in  1775. 

Based  upon  a  map  in 
Faust's   The  German  Element 
in  the  United  States,  I.  p.  26{. 

Houghton  Mifflin  Co. 


Longitude     West        75°      from     Greenwich 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY       181 

"  Far  from  the  bustle  of  the  world,  they  live  in  the 
most  delightful  climate,  and  the  richest  soil  imagin 
able  ;  they  are  everywhere  surrounded  with  the  most 
beautiful  prospects  and  sylvan  scenes ;  .  .  .  they 
.  .  .  live  in  perfect  liberty ;  they  are  ignorant  of 
want,  and  acquainted  with  but  few  vices.  Their  in 
experience  of  the  elegancies  of  life  precludes  any 
regret  that  they  possess  not  the  means  of  enjoying 
them  ;  but  they  possess  what  many  persons  would 
give  half  their  dominions  for,  health,  content,  and 
tranquility  of  mind." 

The  description  does  not  lack  truth,  but  perhaps 
it  somewhat  smacks  of  fashionable  eighteenth-cen 
tury  philosophy.  And  assuredly  no  region  on  the 
frontier  was  more  favored  than  the  famous  Shenan- 
doah  Valley.  Little  question  that  conditions  were  less 
idyllic  in  other  places.  Missionaries  who  preached  the 
Great  Awakening  in  western  Pennsylvania  and  in  the 
Southern  back  country  were  often  enough  appalled 
by  evidence  of  ignorance  and  low  morals.  And  on 
the  far  outer  frontier  at  White  Woman's  Creek, 
Mary  Harris,  still  recalling  after  forty  years'  exile 
that  "  they  used  to  be  very  religious  in  New  Eng 
land,"  told  Christopher  Gist  in  1751  that  "  she  won 
dered  how  white  men  could  be  so  wicked  as  she  had 
seen  them  in  these  woods."  Neither  the  lyric  phrase 
of  Burnaby  nor  the  harsh  verdict  of  Mary  Harris 
fitly  describes  those  interior  communities  that 
stretched  from  Maine  to  Georgia.  But  there,  as  else 
where,  doubtless,  the  practice  of  men's  lives,  even 
among  the  frontier  Puritans  of  New  England,  or  the 
German  Protestants  and  Scotch  Presbyterians  of  the 


182  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

Middle  and  Southern  colonies,  often  fell  short  of 
their  best  ideals.  Leaving  the  sheltered  existence  of 
long-settled  communities,  set  down  on  a  dangerous 
Indian  frontier  or  at  best  in  a  virgin  country,  where 
customary  restraints  were  relaxed,  where  churches 
were  few  and  schools  often  unknown,  where  action 
more  readily  followed  hard  on  desire  and  men's  will 
made  all  the  majesty  of  the  law,  the  aggressive  pri 
mary  instincts  had  freer  play,  and  society  could  not 
but  take  on  a  strain  of  the  primitive.  Even  more 
than  the  original  colonists,  these  dwellers  on  the  sec 
ond  frontier  caught  something  of  the  wild  freedom 
of  the  wilderness,  something  of  the  ruthlessness  of 
nature,  something  also  of  its  self-sufficiency,  some 
thing  of  its  somber  and  emotional  influence. 

Between  this  primitive  agricultural  democracy  of 
the  interior  and  the  commercial  and  landed  aristoc 
racy  of  the  coast,  separated  geographically  and  dif 
fering  widely  in  interests  and  ideals,  conflict  was 
inevitable.  When,  in  1780,  Thomas  Jefferson  said 
that  "  19,000  men  below  the  Falls  give  law  to  more 
than  30,000  living  in  other  parts  of  the  state,"  he 
was  proclaiming  that  opposition  between  the  older 
and  the  newer  America  which  found  expression  in 
provincial  politics  from  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  which  made  a  part  of  the  Revolution,  and 
which  in  every  period  since  has  been  so  decisive  a 
feature  of  our  history.  In  the  eighteenth  century 
the  frontier  was  the  home  of  a  primitive  radicalism. 
Where  offenses  were  elemental  and  easily  detected, 
legal  technicalities  and  the  chicanery  of  courts  seemed 
but  devices  for  the  support  of  idle  lawyers ;  where 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY       183 

debtors  were  most  numerous  and  specie  most  scarce, 
few  could  understand  why  paper  money  would  not 
prove  a  panacea  for  poverty ;  where  every  man  earned 
his  own  bread  and  where  submission  to  the  inevitable 
was  the  only  kind  of  conformity  that  was  deemed 
essential,  slavery  and  a  state  church  were  thought  to 
be  but  the  bulwark  of  class  privilege  and  the  tyranny 
of  kings.  After  the  French  wars  the  interior  com 
munities  of  the  Middle  and  Southern  colonies,  find 
ing  themselves  unfairly  represented  in  the  assem 
blies,  were  first  made  aware  that  their  interests  were 
little  likely  to  be  seriously  regarded  either  by  the 
king's  ministers  or  the  merchants  and  landlords  who 
shaped  legislation  at  Williamsburg,  Philadelphia,  or 
New  York.  For  defending  the  border  in  the  desolat 
ing  war  that  drove  the  French  out  of  America,  it 
now  seemed  that  they  were  to  be  rewarded  by  land 
laws  made  for  the  rich,  an  administration  of  justice 
burdensome  for  sparsely  settled  communities,  a  money 
system  that  penalized  them  for  being  debtors,  or 
taxes  levied  for  the  support  of  a  church  which  they 
never  entered.  And  so,  before  the  Revolution  opened, 
the  Western  imagination  had  conjured  up  the  specter 
of  a  corrupt  and  effete  "  East " :  land  of  money 
changers  and  self-styled  aristocrats  and  a  pliant 
clergy,  the  haunt  of  lawyers  and  hangers-on,  proper 
dwelling-place  of  "  servants  "  and  the  beaten  slave: 
a  land  of  cities,  scorning  the  provincial  West,  and 
bent  on  exploiting  its  laborious  and  upright  people. 
And  who  could  doubt  that  men  who  bought  their 
clothes  in  London  would  readily  crook  the  knee 
to  kings  ?  Who  could  question  that  special  privilege 


184  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

in  the  colonies  was  fostered  by  the  laws  of  trade,  or 
that  aristocracy  in  America  was  the  reward  of  sub 
mission  to  England  ? 

Ill 

The  appearance  before  the  Revolution  of  class  and 
sectional  conflict  within  the  colonies  was  no  more  in 
compatible  then  than  it  has  been  since  with  a  grow 
ing  sense  of  solidarity  against  the  outside  world. 
And  in  developing  this  sense  of  Americanism,  this 
national  consciousness,  the  frontier  was  itself  an  im 
portant  influence.  Physiographically  separated  from 
the  coast  region,  untouched  by  its  social  traditions, 
often  hostile  to  its  political  activities,  the  people  of  the 
back  country  had  but  little  of  that  pride  of  colony 
which  made  the  Bostonian  critical  of  the  New  Yorker, 
or  gave  to  the  true  Virginian  a  feeling  of  superiority 
to  the  "zealots"  of  New  England.  To  the  Scotch- 
Irish  or  German  dweller  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley 
it  mattered  little  whether  he  lived  north  or  south  of 
an  imaginary  and  disputed  line  that  divided  Mary 
land  from  Pennsylvania.  Political  subjection  to  Vir 
ginia  could  not  remove  the  Blue  Ridge  Mountains 
which  isolated  him  far  more  effectively  from  Wil- 
liamsburg  than  from  Baltimore,  or  the  racial  and 
religious  prejudice  that  disposed  him  to  give  more 
credit  to  ministers  trained  at  Princeton  than  to  clergy 
men  ordained  by  the  Bishop  of  London.  In  the  back 
country,  lines  of  communication  ran  north  and  south, 
and  men  moved  up  and  down  the  valleys  from  Penn 
sylvania  to  Georgia,  whether  in  search  of  homes  or 
in  pursuit  of  trade  or  to  spread  the  gospel,  scarcely 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY       185 

conscious   of   the   political   boundaries   which    they 
crossed,  and  in  crossing  helped  to  obliterate. 

If  the  physiography  of  the  back  country  cut  across 
provincial  boundaries,  the  mingling  of  diverse  races, 
in  an  environment  which  constrained  men  to  act  along- 

o 

similar  lines  while  leaving  them  free  to  think  much 
as  they  liked,  could  not  but  wear  away  the  sharp 
edges  of  warring  creeds  and  divergent  customs.  The 
many  Protestant  sects,  differing  widely  in  externals, 
were  not  far  apart  in  fundamentals ;  and  as  in  leav 
ing  their  European  homes  the  chief  causes  of  differ 
ence  disappeared,  so  life  in  America  brought  all  the 
similarities  into  strong  relief.  In  this  new  country, 
where  schools  were  few  and  great  universities  inac 
cessible,  the  Presbyterian  ideal  of  an  educated  clergy 
could  not  be  always  maintained,  while  sects  which  in 
Europe  had  professed  to  despise  learning  came  to  re 
gard  it  more  highly  in  a  land  where  the  effects  of 
ignorance  were  more  apparent  than  the  evils  of  ped 
antry.  No  man  could  afford  to  be  fastidious  in  any 
minor  point  of  religious  practice  when  a  good  day's 
journey  would  no  more  than  bring  him  to  the  near 
est  church.  Mr.  Samuel  Davies,  one  of  the  early 
presidents  of  Princeton,  and  for  some  years  a  mis 
sionary  on  the  Virginia  frontier,  said  that  people  in 
the  up-country  came  twenty,  thirty,  and  even  forty 
miles  to  hear  him  preach.  In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Bellamy, 
of  Bethlehem,  he  describes  his  labors,  and  asks  for 
ministers  to  help  him,  from  "New  England  or  else 
where."  So  true  is  it,  as  Colonel  Byrd  had  observed 
in  North  Carolina,  that  "  people  uninstrticted  in  any 
religion  are  ready  to  embrace  the  first  that  offers." 


186  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

Yet  in  many  a  community,  on  the  frontier  and  in 
every  part  of  the  Middle  colonies,  the  mingling  of 
races  compelled  men,  however  well  instructed,  to  ig 
nore  the  minor  points  of  their  proper  creeds.  The 
Moravian  missionary  Schnell,  preaching  at  South 
Branch,  Virginia,  to  an  audience  of  English,  Ger 
mans,  and  Dutch,  quite  satisfied  them  all  by  dis 
coursing  from  the  text,  "  If  any  man  thirst,  let  him 
come  to  me  and  drink."  Although  his  principles  for 
bade  him  to  baptize  the  children  which  were  brought 
to  him,  they  "  liked  Brother  Schnell  very  much,'* 
and  desired  him  to  remain  with  them.  And  com 
munities  there  were  where  men  had  forgotten  the 
very  names  almost  of  Protestant  sects.  Some  people 
in  Hanover  County,  assembling  on  Sundays  to  read 
a  book  of  Whitefield's  sermons  which  by  some  chance 
had  come  their  way,  and  being  desired  by  the  county 
court  to  declare  what  religion  they  were  of,  found 
themselves  at  a  loss  for  a  name,  "  as  we  knew  but 
little  of  any  denomination  of  Protestants,  except 
Quakers."  But  at  length,  "recollecting  that  Luther 
was  a  noted  reformer,  and  that  his  books  had  been 
of  special  service  to  us,  we  declared  ourselves  Luther 
ans;  and  thus 'we  continued  until  Providence  sent  us 
the  Rev.  Mr.  William  Robinson."  Aided  by  Luther 
and  edified  by  Whitefield,  they  were  quite  content 
to  be  further  instructed  and  "corrected"  by  Mr. 
Robinson,  Presbyterian  though  he  was,  "being  in 
formed  that  his  method  of  preaching  was  awakening." 

And,  indeed,  toward  the  middle  of  the  century, 
the  "  awakening  "  preacher  was  everywhere  welcome. 
In  America,  as  in  England  itself,  a  strange  lethargy 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY       187 

had  fallen  on  the  churches  in  that  interlude  between 
the  Puritan  regime  and  the  Revolution.  Dead  liter 
alism  had  crept  into  the  pulpits,  and  conventional 
conformity  too  often  did  duty  for  conviction  among 
the  people.  It  was  a  condition  which  could  not  en 
dure  in  communities  where  religion  was  still  the 
chief  intellectual  and  emotional  refuge  from  the 
daily  routine  of  commonplace  duties.  Thus  it  hap 
pened  that  both  in  the  older  settlements,  where  for 
the  unlettered  the  dull  round  of  life  was  rarely 
broken  either  by  real  or  fictitious  adventure,  and  in 
those  newer  regions  where  primitive  conditions 
brought  the  primal  passions  readily  to  the  surface, 
the  burning  words  of  the  revivalist  met  with  ready 
and  unprecedented  response.  Let  him  but  preach 
"  vital "  religion,  and  none  questioned  too  closely 
into  his  formal  beliefs,  or  inquired  of  what  nation 
ality  or  province  he  might  be.  For  the  preachers  of 
"  vital ' '  religion  —  whether  the  Moravian  Schnell 
or  the  Methodist  Whitefield,  whether  the  Puritan 
Jonathan  Edwards,  profoundest  theologian  of  his 
generation,  or  the  Presbyterian  enthusiasts,  such  as 
Gilbert  Tennant  and  Mr.  Davies,  who  went  out  from 
the  little  Log  College  to  carry  the  gospel  to  the 
mixed  population  of  the  Middle  and  Southern  colo 
nies  —  all  alike  appealed  to  those  instinctive  emo 
tions  which  make  men  kin  and  from  which  every 
religion  springs.  In  forming  the  new  spirit  of  Amer 
icanism,  few  events  were  more  important  than  the 
Great  Awakening.  During  that  sudden  up-surging 
of  religious  emotionalism,  which  for  a  decade  rolled 
like  a  tidal  wave  over  the  colonies,  provincial  boun- 


188  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

daries  and  the  distinctions  of  race  and  creed  were  in 
some  measure  forgotten  in  a  new  sense  of  common 
nature  and  human  brotherhood. 

True  it  is  that  the  Great  Awakening  was  accom 
panied  by  no  lack  of  acid  jealousies  and  unchristian 
recrimination.  In  almost  every  sect  "  New  Light " 
separated  from  "  Old  Light,"  "  New  Side  ''  from 
"  Old  Side,"  in  most  unfraternal  division,  Gilbert 
Tennant,  imitating  Whitefield  and  out-heroding 
Herod,  exhausted  ecclesiastical  billingsgate  in  quest 
of  terms  to  characterize  those  clergymen  —  Congre 
gational  or  Presbyterian  or  Anglican  ;  those  "  letter- 
learned  Pharisees,"  those  "  moral  negroes,"  those 
"  plastered  hypocrites  "  —  who  stood  out  in  stiff- 
necked  opposition  to  revivalist  methods  of  inculcat 
ing  vital  religion.  Schism  divided  the  Presbyterians 
for  more  than  a  decade  ;  many  congregations  in  east 
ern  Connecticut,  renouncing  the  Saybrook  Platform 
and  the  Half -Way  Covenant,  "  separated  "  from  the 
Association ;  and  in  Massachusetts  the  quarrel  be 
tween  revivalists  and  anti-revivalists  only  accentuated 
the  breach  between  new  and  old  Calvinists.  And  true 
it  is  that  the  flood  tide  was  followed  by  the  ebb :  the 
tremendous  emotional  upheaval,  which  began  with 
the  Northampton  sermons  of  Jonathan  Edwards  in 
1734,  seemed  to  cease  after  1744  as  suddenly  as  it 
came.  For  more  than  a  year  scarcely  one  person  was 
converted  in  all  Boston,  said  Thomas  Prince  in  1754. 
Jonathan  Edwards  waited  in  vain  from  1744  to 
1748  for  a  single  applicant  for  admission  to  the 
Northampton  Church.  And  the  great  Whitefield 
himself,  returning  to  America  in  1744,  1754,  and 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY       189 

1764,  although  always  gladly  heard  by  thousands, 
found  that  the  old  magic  had  unaccountably  lost  its 
wonder-working  power. 

Yet  division  is  sometimes  the  prelude  to  more  ef 
fective  union.  It  was  precisely  in  sowing  dissension 
within  the  sects  that  the  Great  Awakening  broke 
down  barriers  between  the  sects ;  and  by  separating 
men  in  the  same  locality  it  united  men  in  different 
localities.  The  graduates  of  Log  College,  a  very 
seminary  of  revivalism,  disowned  by  Philadelphia 
Presbyterians,  found  encouragement  among  New 
Englanders  of  East  Jersey  and  New  York  Presby 
terians  who  had  been  educated  at  New  Haven.  In 
1746,  men  from  three  colonies,  whom  the  Great 
Awakening  had  brought  into  closer  relations,  founded 
the  College  of  New  Jersey,  afterwards  located  at 
Princeton.  Although  destined  to  become  the  intel 
lectual  citadel  of  a  new  Presbyterianism,  two  of  its 
first  three  presidents  were  born  in  New  England, 
two  were  graduates  of  Yale  College,  and  one  was  a 
Congregationalist,  while  Samuel  Blair,  an  alumnus 
of  the  new  institution,  was  not  thought  unworthy  to 
be  minister  of  the  Old  South  Church  of  Boston. 
These  are  but  isolated  instances  of  the  leveling  of 
religious  barriers  between  Protestant  sects  in  the 
Northern  colonies.  In  the  decades  following  the 
Great  Awakening  New  England  religious  solidarity 
was  already  a  thing  of  the  past.  While  cultivated 
and  tolerant  liberals  of  Boston,  dallying  with  Armin- 
ian  and  Arian  delusions  that  were  but  the  prelude 
to  Unitarian  ism,  departed  from  the  old  Calvinism 
in  one  direction,  Jonathan  Edwards  and  his  disci- 


190  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

pies  were  formulating  the  "  New  England  Theology  " 
which  enabled  the  clergy  of  Connecticut  and  western 
Massachusetts  to  approach  within  hailing  distance 
of  Scotch  Presbyterianism.  Ministers  of  "  Consoci- 
ated  "  churches  scrupled  not,  indeed,  to  call  them 
selves  Presbyterians.  From  1766  to  1775,  represen 
tatives  from  the  Connecticut  Association,  and  from 
the  Synods  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  snuffing 
on  every  tainted  breeze  the  danger  of  a  prospective 
Anglican  Episcopate,  met  annually  in  joint  conven 
tion  ;  and  a  few  years  later  it  was  without  reproach 
that  the  Connecticut  Congregationalists  could  refer 
to  the  plan  for  a  still  more  intimate  fellowship  as 
"  a  Scheme  for  the  Union  of  the  Presbyterians  of 
America." 

The  fear  of  Anglicanism  may  remind  us  that  the 
leveling  of  religious  barriers  was  in  part  brought 
about  by  the  movement  toward  political  union.  And 
in  generating  this  new  sense  of  solidarity,  whether 
in  respect  to  religion  or  politics,  better  facilities  for 
intercourse  and  communication  were  not  without  im 
portance.  It  is  difficult  for  us,  living  in  an  age  when 
a  man  may  breakfast  in  Philadelphia  and  dine  the 
same  day  in  Boston,  to  remember  that  Franklin  was 
"  about  a  fortnight "  making  the  same  distance  in 
1724.  Yet  a  quarter  of  a  century  later,  when  the 
means  of  travel  were  not  much  more  expeditious 
even  if  they  were  more  certain,  men  journeyed  con 
tinuously  up  and  down  the  road  that  led  from  Bos 
ton  to  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  and  from  Phila 
delphia  out  into  the  back  country  and  along  the 
Shenaudoah  Valley.  So  much  so,  that  the  inhabi- 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY       191 

tants  of  the  little  town  of  New  Brunswick,  says  Peter 
Kalm,  "  get  a  considerable  profit  from  the  travellers 
who  every  hour  pass  through  on  the  high  road." 
Communication  by  correspondence,  immensely  facili 
tated  after  the  establishment  of  the  "  General  Post 
Office  "  by  Parliament  in  1710,  served  often  to  create 
cordial  relations  between  men  living  in  different  col 
onies  ;  men  who  perhaps  had  never  seen  each  other, 
and  who  might  have  been,  as  the  good  John  Adams 
sometimes  was,  disillusioned  by  personal  contact. 
Newspapers,  long  since  established  in  Philadelphia 
and  Charleston,  as  well  as  in  New  York  and  Boston, 
regularly  carrying  the  latest  intelligence  from  every 
colony  into  every  other,  wore  away  provincial  prej 
udice  and  strengthened  intercolonial  solidarity  by 
revealing  the  common  character  of  governmental  or 
ganization  and  of  political  issues  from  Massachusetts 
to  South  Carolina.  The  assembly  at  Williamsburg  or 
at  Philadelphia,  guarding  local  privileges  against  the 
encroachments  of  prerogative,  was  made  aware  that 
in  fundamentals  the  conflict  was  American  rather 
than  merely  provincial,  and  proclaimed  its  rights 
more  stubbornly  and  with  far  greater  confidence  for 
knowing  that  assemblies  in  New  York  and  Boston 
were  enlisted  in  the  common  cause. 

In  strengthening  this  sense  of  political  solidarity, 
the  last  French  wars  were  of  great  importance. 
Aroused  as  never  before  to  a  realization  of  the  com 
mon  danger,  colonial  Governments  cooperated,  im 
perfectly,  indeed,  but  on  a  scale  and  with  a  unanim 
ity  hitherto  unknown,  in  an  undertaking  which  none 
could  doubt  was  of  momentous  import  to  America 


192  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

and  to  the  world.  Never  before  were  so  many  men 
from  different  colonies  brought  into  personal  con 
tact  with  one  another ;  never  before  had  so  many 
Americans  of  all  classes  heard  the  speech  and  ob 
served  the  manners  of  Britons.  It  was  an  experience 
not  to  be  forgotten.  The  Puritan  recruit  from  Mas 
sachusetts  might  write  home  lamenting  the  scandal 
ous  irreligion  that  prevailed  among  the  levies  from 
other  colonies ;  but  the  irritating  condescension  of 
British  regulars  made  him  aware  that  he  had  after  all 
more  in  common  with  the  most  unregenerate  Ameri 
can  than  with  any  Englishman.  The  provincial,  sub 
tly  conscious  of  his  limitations  when  brought  into 
contact  with  more  traveled  and  cosmopolitan  men, 
endures  less  readily  than  any  other  to  be  reminded 
of  his  inferiority.  Who  shall  estimate  the  effect  upon 
the  proud  and  self-contained  Washington  of  inter 
course  with  supercilious  British  officers  during  the 
Braddock  expedition?  In  how  many  unrecorded  in 
stances  did  a  similar  experience  produce  a  similar 
effect  ?  No  bitterness  endures  like  that  of  the  pro 
vincial  despised  because  of  his  provincialism.  He  has 
no  recourse  but  to  make  a  virtue  of  his  defects,  and 
prove  himself  superior  by  condemning  qualities  which 
he  may  once  have  envied.  And  Americans  were  the 
more  confirmed  in  this  attitude  by  the  multiplied 
proofs  of  the  Englishman's  real  inferiority  for  the 
business  in  hand.  Who  were  these  men  from  over 
sea  to  instruct  natives  in  the  art  of  frontier  warfare  ? 
—  men  who  proclaimed  their  ignorance  of  the  woods 
by  standing  grouped  and  red-coated  in  the  open  to 
be  shot  down  by  Indians  whom  they  could  not  see ! 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY       193 

From  the  experience  of  the  last  French  war  there 
emerged  something  of  that  sublime  self-confidence 
which  stamps  the  true  American.  And  in  that  war 
was  generated  a  sense  of  spiritual  separation  from 
England  never  quite  felt  before  —  something  of  the 
contempt  of  the  frontiersman  for  the  tenderfoot  who 
comes  from  the  sheltered  existence  of  cities  to  in 
struct  him  in  the  refinements  of  life. 

After  the  Peace  of  Paris  provincial  politics  takes 
on,  indeed,  a  certain  militant  and  perfervid  character 
hitherto  unknown,  and  not  wholly  due  to  the  restric 
tive  measures  of  the  Grenville  Ministry.  It  was  as 
if  the  colonists,  newly  stirred  by  a  nai've,  primitive 
egoism,  still  harboring  the  memory  of  unmerited 
slights,  of  services  unappreciated  even  if  paid  for, 
had  carried  over  into  secular  activities  some  fanatical 
strain  from  the  Great  Awakening,  something  of  the 
intensity  of  deep-seated  moral  convictions.  And  in 
no  unreal  sense  this  was  so.  The  mantle  of  Samuel 
Davies  fell  upon  Patrick  Henry.  The  flood  tide  of 
religious  emotionalism  ebbed  but  to  flow  in  other 
channels ;  and  men  who  had  been  so  profoundly  stirred 
by  the  revivalist  were  the  more  readily  moved  by  the 
appeal  of  the  revolutionary  orator. 

In  diverting  the  current  of  quickened  religious 
feeling  into  political  channels,  the  influence  of  Prince 
ton  College  was  a  memorable  one.  Founded  by  Pres 
byterians  less  interested  in  creeds  than  in  vital  religion, 
and  barring  no  person  on  "account  of  any  speculative 
principles,"  the  new  institution  furnished  an  educa 
tion  that  was  "liberal "  in  the  political  as  well  as  in 
the  intellectual  sense  of  the  term.  From  this  center 


194  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

emanated  a  new  leaven.  Here  young  men  came  from 
all  the  Middle  and  Southern  country  to  receive  the 
stamp  of  a  new  Presbyterianism  compounded  of 
vital  religion  and  the  latter-day  spirit  of  Geneva. 
In  this  era,  by  such  men  as  John  Madison,  Oliver 
Ellsworth,  and  Luther  Martin,  were  founded  the  two 
famous  societies,  Cliosophic  and  American  Whig, 
where  the  lively  discussions  were  doubtless  more 
often  concerned  with  history  and  politics  than  with 
the  abstract  points  of  theology  or  religion.  It 
was  in  1768  that  John  Witherspoon,  the  very  per 
sonification  of  the  new  influence,  became  president 
of  the  college.  A  Scotchman  educated  at  Edinburgh, 
he  became  at  once  an  ardent  defender  of  the  colonial 
cause,  as  "  high  a  Son  of  Liberty  as  any  man  in  Amer 
ica,"  destined  to  be  better  known  as  a  signer  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  than  as  a  Presbyterian 
minister  of  the  gospel.  During  twenty  years  previous 
to  the  Eevolution,  many  men  went  out  from  Prince 
ton  to  become  powerful  moulders  of  public  opinion. 
Few  were  counted  as  theologians  of  note ;  few  were 
set  down  as  British  Loyalists.  But  they  were  proud 
to  be  known  as  Americans  and  patriots :  ministers 
who  from  obscure  pulpits  proclaimed  the  blessings  of 
political  liberty ;  laymen  who  professed  politics  with 
the  fervor  of  religious  conviction. 

And  the  Puritan  spirit,  in  like  manner  deserting 
the  worn-out  body  of  old  theologies,  was  reincarnated 
in  secular  forms,  to  become  once  more  the  animat 
ing  force  of  New  England  civic  life.  The  fall  of  the 
Puritan  theocracy  was  followed,  half  a  century  later, 
by  the  rise  of  the  Puritan  democracy.  As  the  old  in- 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY       195 

timacy  between  State  and  Church  disappeared,  the 
churches  turned  to  the  people  for  that  support  which 
was  no  longer  accorded  by  government.  Thus  there 
came  into  general  use  the  famous  Half-Way  Cove 
nant,  a  wide-open  back  door  through  which  all  men 
of  blameless  lives  and  orthodox  beliefs  might  press 
into  the  churches,  a  kind  of  ecclesiastical  manhood 
suffrage  undermining  the  aristocracy  of  the  fully  re 
generate.  As  a  partial  remedy  for  the  evils  arising 
out  of  this  democratization  of  religion  and  church 
government,  a  closer  union  of  the  churches  under 
ministerial  supervision  was  advocated,  and  finally 
adopted  in  Connecticut  under  the  name  of  "  Conso 
ciation."  But  the  scheme  was  defeated  in  Massa 
chusetts;  and  it  is  significant  that  the  men  who 
defeated  it,  no  friends,  many  of  them,  of  the  Half- 
Way  Covenant,  appealed  to  that  very  democratic  prin 
ciple  of  which  the  Half-Way  Covenant  was  a  practi 
cal  application.  It  was  a  son  of  Cotton  Mather  who 
warned  the  people  of  the  churches  never  blindly  to 
"  resign  themselves  to  the  direction  of  their  minis 
ters  ;  but  consider  themselves,  as  men,  as  Christians, 
as  Protestants,  obliged  to  act  and  judge  for  them 
selves  in  all  the  weighty  concernments  of  Religion." 
To  resign  themselves  to  their  ministers  was  thought, 
indeed,  to  be  but  the  first  step  backward  toward  An 
glican  oppression  and  Papal  tyranny. 

A  far  more  profound  opponent  of  ecclesiastical 
aristocracy  was  the  Reverend  John  Wise,  of  Ipswich. 
He  belongs  to  that  illustrious  minority  which  stood 
out  against  the  witchcraft  delusion.  Fined  and  im 
prisoned  upon  one  occasion  for  leading  his  town  to 


196  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

refuse  the  collection  of  taxes  not  imposed  by  a  repre 
sentative  assembly,  he  was  a  proper  man  to  declare 
that  "  power  is  originally  in  the  people."  As  men  are 
"  all  naturally  free  and  equal,"  civil  government  "  is 
the  effect  of  human  free-compacts  and  not  of  divine 
instigation."  And  "if  Christ  has  settled  any  form  of 
power  in  his  Church  he  has  done  it  for  the  benefit  of 
every  member.  Then  he  must  needs  be  presumed  to 
have  made  choice  of  that  government  as  should  least 
expose  the  people  to  hazard,  either  from  fraud,  or 
arbitrary  measures  of  particular  men.  And  it  is 
as  plain  as  daylight,  there  is  no  species  of  gov^ 
ernment  like  a  democracy  to  attain  this  end."  So 
argued  the  Ipswich  preacher  in  1717.  Fifty  years 
later,  his  Vindication  of  the  Government  of  the  New 
England  Churches,  too  radical  for  his  own  day,  was 
seen  to  be  the  very  thing  needed ;  in  1772,  when 
"  consociation  "  had  broken  down  even  in  Connecti 
cut,  when  Anglicanism  was  associated  in  men's  minds 
with  royal  oppression,  and  when  political  and  religious 
liberty  seemed  destined  to  stand  or  fall  together,  then 
the  work  of  John  Wise  was  reprinted  and  two  edi 
tions  were  exhausted  within  the  year. 

Accompanying  the  endeavor  to  find  a  common 
theoretical  basis  for  Church  and  State  was  the  dis 
position  to  apply  a  common  test  to  public  and  pri 
vate  conduct.  Rousseau  voiced  one  of  the  strongest 
convictions  of  his  age  when  he  said  that  "  those  who 
would  treat  politics  and  morality  apart  will  never 
understand  anything  about  either  one  or  the  other." 
With  the  decay  of  creeds,  true  religion  was  thought 
by  many  to  be  inseparable  from  civic  virtue,  while 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY       197 

political  philosophy,  preaching  the  regeneration  of 
an  "  artificial "  society  by  returning  to  the  simple 
life  of  nature,  was  often  conceived  with  an  emotional 
fervor  which  raised  civic  duties  to  the  level  of  re 
ligious  rites.  In  America,  long  before  Rousseau 
startled  the  world  with  his  paradoxes,  men  who 
could  not  agree  on  creeds  or  forms  of  government 
found  common  ground  in  thinking  that  the  test  of 
true  religion  was  that  it  made  good  citizens,  the  test 
of  rightly  ordered  society  that  it  made  good  men.  In 
the  early  letters  of  John  Adams  we  may  note  how 
one  man's  mind  was  won  to  this  new  ideal.  "  There 
is  a  story  about  town,"  he  writes  to  Charles  Gush 
ing,  u  that  I  am  an  Arminian."  Time  was  when  such 
a  rumor  would  have  been  too  serious  to  be  reported, 
without  comment,  in  the  postscript  of  a  long  letter. 
In  1756,  even  this  young  candidate  for  the  ministry 
felt  that  such  issues  were  becoming  remote  and  un 
real.  He  but  voiced  the  growing  discontent  when  he 
asked,  "  where  do  we  find  a  precept  in  the  gospel 
requiring  ecclesiastical  synods,  councils,  creeds,  oaths, 
subscriptions,  and  whole  cart-loads  of  other  trumpery 
that  we  find  religion  encumbered  with  in  these  days?  " 
Independent  thinking,  fortified  by  the  authority  of 
Locke  and  Sidney,  Bacon  and  Tillotson,  and  the 
author  of  Cato's  Letters,  enabled  him  to  announce, 
in  the  very  spirit  and  all  but  the  very  words  of 
Diderot  and  Rousseau,  of  whom  he  had  never  heard, 
that  "  the  design  of  Christianity  was  not  to  make 
good  riddle-solvers  or  good  mystery-mongers,  but 
good  men,  good  magistrates,  and  good  subjects." 
And  so  he  renounced  the  ministry  in  favor  of  uthat 


198  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

science  by  which  mankind  raise  themselves  from  the 
forlorn,  helpless  state,  in  which  nature  leaves  them, 
to  the  full  enjoyment  of  all  the  inestimable  bless 
ings  of  social  union." 

It  is  but  an  evidence  of  the  force  of  this  new  ideal 
that  Benjamin  Franklin,  in  whose  life  and  writings 
it  finds  best  expression,  became  the  most  influential 
American  of  his  time  and  won  in  two  continents  the 
veneration  that  men  accord  to  saints  and  prophets. 
At  the  age  of  sixteen  some  books  against  Deism 
came  his  way ;  but  "  the  arguments  of  the  Deists, 
which  were  quoted  to  be  refuted,  appeared  to  me  to 
be  stronger  than  the  refutations ;  [and]  I  soon  be 
came  a  thorough  Deist."  Yet  experience  straight 
way  led  this  original  pragmatist  to  the  conclusion 
that,  although  a  materialistic  philosophy  of  life 
"  might  be  true,  it  was  not  very  useful."  Without 
faith  in  religions,  yet  unable  to  do  without  religion, 
he  set  down  the  list  of  virtues  which  he  thought 
might  be  of  benefit  to  himself  and  at  the  same  time 
of  service  to  his  fellows ;  qualities  which  all  the  sects 
might  unite  in  proclaiming  good,  and  which  any  man 
might  easily  acquire  by  a  little  persistence  in  self- 
discipline.  Aiming  to  become  himself  "  completely 
virtuous,"  he  dreamed  of  some  day  formulating  the 
universal  principles  of  the  "  Art  of  Virtue,"  and 
of  uniting  all  good  men  throughout  the  world  in  a 
society  for  promoting  the  practice  of  it.  And  what 
was  this  Art  of  Virtue  but  a  socialized  religion  di 
vested  of  doctrine  and  ritual  ?  "  I  think  vital  re 
ligion  has  always  suffered  when  orthodoxy  is  more 
regarded  than  virtue  ;  and  the  Scriptures  assure  me 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY       199 

that  at  the  last  day  we  shall  not  be  examined  what 
we  thought,  but  what  we  did  ;  and  our  recommenda 
tion  will  be  that  we  did  good  to  our  fellow  creatures." 
The  evangelist  Whitefield,  when  Franklin  once  prom 
ised  to  do  him  a  personal  service,  assured  the  philoso 
pher  that  if  he  made  that  kind  offer  for  Christ's  sake 
he  should  not  miss  a  reward.  It  was  in  the  spirit  of 
the  new  age  speaking  to  the  old  that  the  sage  re 
plied  :  "  Don't  let  me  be  mistaken ;  it  was  not  for 
Christ's  sake,  but  for  yours." 

Franklin  spoke  indeed  for  the  new  age  and  the 
New  World.  He  was  the  first  American :  the  very 
personification  of  that  native  sense  of  destiny  and 
high  mission  in  the  world,  and  of  that  good-natured 
tolerance  for  the  half -spent  peoples  of  Europe,  which 
is  the  American  spirit ;  a  living  and  vocal  product, 
as  it  were,  of  all  the  material  and  spiritual  forces 
that  were  transforming  the  people  of  the  British 
plantations  into  a  new  nation.  All  racial  and  religious 
antagonisms,  all  sectional  and  intercolonial  jealousies, 
all  class  prejudice,  were  in  some  manner  compre 
hended  and  reconciled  in  Franklin.  He  was  as  old 
as  the  century  and  touched  it  at  every  point.  What 
an  inclusive  experience  was  that  of  this  self-made 
provincial  who  as  a  printer's  boy  heard  Increase  Ma 
ther  preach  in  Boston  and  in  his  old  age  stood  with 
Voltaire  in  Paris  to  be  proclaimed  the  incomparable 
benefactor  of  mankind !  Provincial !  But  was  this 
man  provincial?  Or  was  that,  indeed,  a  province 
which  produced  such  men  ?  Was  that  country  rightly 
dependent  and  inferior  where  law  and  custom  were 
most  in  accord  with  the  philosopher's  ideal  society? 


200  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

In  that  transvaluation  of  old  values  effected  by  the 
intellectual  revolution  of  the  century,  it  was  the 
fortune  of  America  to  emerge  as  a  kind  of  concrete 

L  example  of  the  imagined  State  of  Nature.  In  con 
trast  with  Europe,  so  "  artificial,"  so  oppressed  with 
defenseless  tyrannies  and  useless  inequalities,  so 
encumbered  with  decayed  superstitions  and  the 
debris  of  worn-out  institutions,  how  superior  was 
this  new  laud  of  promise  where  the  citizen  was  a 
free  man,  where  the  necessities  of  life  were  the  sure 
reward  of  industry,  where  manners  were  simple,  where 
vice  was  less  prevalent  than  virtue  and  native  inca 
pacity  the  only  effective  barrier  to  ambition!  In 
those  years  when  British  statesmen  were  endeavor 
ing  to  reduce  the  "  plantations  "  to  a  stricter  obedi 
ence,  some  quickening  influence  from  this  ideal  of 
Old  World  philosophers  came  to  reinforce  the  de 
termination  of  Americans  to  be  masters  of  their  own 
destiny. 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

For  the  constitutional  and  political  tendencies  in  this  period, 
see  Channing,  History  of  the  United  States,  n,  chaps,  x-xn;  Greene, 
Provincial  America,  chaps,  v,  xu;  Andrews,  The  Colonial  Period, 
chap.  vn.  Economic,  social,  and  intellectual  characteristics  are 
well  described  in  Channing,  n,  chaps,  xv-xvn;  Greene,  chaps, 
xvi-xvm;  Andrews,  The  Colonial  Period,  chaps,  in,  iv.  The  best 
account  of  religious  changes  in  the  eighteenth  century  is  in  Walker, 
History  of  Congregationalism  in  America.  See  also,  Fiske,  New 
France  and  New  England,  chap.  vi.  Of  special  importance  for  the 
influence  of  Princeton  College  and  for  the  religious  conditions  in 
the  up-country  are  The  Life  of  Devereaux  Jarrett  (Baltimore,  1806) ; 
and  Alexander,  Biographical  Sketches  of  the  Founder  and  the  Alumni 
of  Log  College  (Princeton,  1845).  The  expansion  of  population  into 
the  interior  and  the  coming  of  the  Germans  and  Scotch-Irish  are 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY       201 

well  described  in  Charming,  n,  chap,  xiv;  and  Greene,  chap.  xiv. 
For  a  full  treatment  of  the  German  migration  see  Faust,  The  Ger 
man  Element  in  the  United  States  (2  vols.  1909);  for  the  Scotch- 
Irish  see  Hanna,  The  Scotch-Irish  (2  vols.  1902).  The  best  account 
of  the  characteristics  of  frontier  society  in  this  period  is  in  Turner, 
The  Old  West,  in  Proceedings  of  the  Wisconsin  Historical  Society, 
1908,  p.  184.  Of  considerable  importance  for  understanding  colo 
nial  society  in  this  period  are  the  observations  of  foreign  travelers, 
notably  Kalm  and  Burnaby  whose  narratives  are  printed  in 
Pinkerton,  Voyages  (London,  1808-14),  vol.  xin.  For  understand 
ing  the  temper  and  ideals  of  America  in  the  eighteenth  century,  no 
writings  are  of  equal  importance  with  those  of  John  Adams  and 
Benjamin  Franklin,  especially  the  Diary  of  the  former  (Works  of 
John  Adams,  10  vols.  Boston,  1856)  and  the  Autobiography  of  the 
latter,  in  his  collected  works  and  separately  printed  in  many  edi 
tions.  See  Bigelow  edition.  The  Life  of  Benjamin  Franklin  written 
by  Himself. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE    WINNING    OF    INDEPENDENCE 

If  they  accept  protection,  do  they  not  stipulate  obedience  ? 

SAMUEL  JOHNSON. 

The  decree  has  gone  forth,  and  cannot  now  be  recalled,  that  a  more 
equal  liberty  than  has  prevailed  in  other  parts  of  the  earth,  must  be 
established  in  America. 

JOHN  ADAMS. 


As  Chateaubriand  said  of  the  Revolution  in 
France,  that  it  was  complete  before  it  began,  so  may 
it  be  said  that  America  was  free  before  it  won  inde 
pendence.  The  strict  letter  of  the  law  counts  for 
less  in  times  of  emotional  stress  than  the  strong 
sense  of  prescriptive  right,  and  formal  allegiance  is 
in  no  way  incompatible  with  a  deep-seated  feeling 
that  submission  must  be  voluntary  to  be  honorable. 
Before  the  outbreak  of  the  French  war  such  a  feel 
ing  was  common  throughout  the  colonies.  The  state 
of  mind  which  conditioned  the  formal  argument  for 
colonial  rights  and  drove  the  colonists  into  revolu 
tion  is  revealed  in  a  sentence  which  Franklin  wrote 
in  1755  :  "  British  subjects,  by  removing  to  Amer 
ica,  cultivating  a  wilderness,  extending  the  domain, 
and  increasing  the  wealth,  commerce,  and  power  of 
the  mother  country,  at  the  hazard  of  their  lives  and 
fortunes,  ought  not,  and  in  fact  do  not  thereby  lose 
their  native  rights."  It  was  as  much  as  to  say  that 


THE  WINNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE    203 

Americans  were  in  fact  free  because  they  ought  to 
be  free,  and  that  they  ought  to  be  free  because  they 
had  made  for  themselves  a  new  country. 

The  issue  between  England  and  America  is  there 
fore  not  be  resolved  by  computing  the  burden  of  a 
penny  tax,  or  by  exposing  the  sordid  motives  of 
British  merchants  and  Boston  smugglers,  still  less 
by  coming  "  armed  at  all  points  with  law  cases  and 
acts  of  Parliament,  with  the  statute-book  doubled 
down  in  dog's  ears  "  to  defend  either  the  cause  of 
liberty  or  authority.  The  issue,  shot  through  and 
through,  as  all  great  issues  are,  by  innumerable  sor 
did  motives  and  personal  enmities  and  private  am 
bitions,  was  yet  one  between  differing  ideals  of  jus 
tice  and  welfare  ;  one  of  those  issues  which,  touching 
the  emotional  springs  of  conduct,  are  never  composed 
by  an  appeal  to  reason,  which  formal  argument  the 
most  correct,  or  the  most  skilled  dialectic,  serve  only 
to  render  more  irreconcilable.  "  In  Britain,"  said 
Bernard  in  1765,  "  the  American  governments  are 
considered  as  corporations  empowered  to  make  by 
laws,  existing  only  during  the  pleasure  of  Parlia 
ment.  In  America  they  claim  to  be  perfect  states, 
no  otherwise  dependent  upon  Great  Britain  than  by 
having  the  same  king."  Few  Englishmen  could  im 
agine  an  empire  of  free  states ;  few  Americans  could 
understand  a  nation  bound  against  its  will. 

The  policy  which  history  associates  with  the  name 
of  Grenville  did  not  originate  witli  him,  nor  yet  with 
his  royal  master,  George  III.  It  was  the  unhappy 
experience  of  the  Austrian  Succession  War  that  en 
forced  upon  the  English  Government  the  necessity 


204  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

of  a  stricter  attention  to  the  colonies.  Ministers  who 
then  set  themselves  to  read  the  American  dispatches 
were  amazed  to  find  the  governors  everywhere  with 
out  adequate  support  against  the  assemblies,  the  as 
semblies  everywhere  indifferent  to  imperial  inter 
ests.  After  the  Peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  plantation 
affairs  were  accordingly  placed  under  the  direction 
of  the  able  Halifax;  and  in  1752  the  governors  were 
instructed  to  transmit  all  correspondence  "  to  His 
Majesty  by  one  of  His  Majesty's  principal  Secre 
taries  of  State."  To  remedy  an  untoward  situation 
many  schemes  were  broached,  on  the  eve  of  the  Seven 
Years'  War,  designed  to  bring  the  colonies  "to  a 
sense  of  their  duty  to  the  king,  to  awaken  them  to 
take  care  of  their  lives  and  fortunes."  The  need  of 
the  hour  was  a  union  of  the  colonies  for  military  de 
fense;  and  in  1754,  on  the  initiative  of  the  English 
Government,  representatives  from  seven  colonies 
adopted  a  scheme  drafted  by  Franklin  and  known 
as  the  Albany  Plan  of  Union.  It  was  ominous  for 
the  success  of  all  such  attempts  in  the  future  that  a 
plan  which  was  thought  by  the  ministers  too  weak 
to  be  effective  was  thought  by  the  colonial  assem 
blies  too  strong  to  be  safe.  In  any  case,  with  hostili 
ties  already  begun,  the  issue  could  not  be  pressed  to 
a  conclusion  when,  as  the  Board  of  Trade  asserted, 
"  a  good  understanding  between  your  Majesty's  gov 
ernors  and  the  people  is  so  absolutely  necessary." 
Under  the  stress  of  war,  all  ministerial  projects  for 
a  stricter  control  of  the  colonies  were  accordingly 
laid  aside  until  the  restoration  of  peace. 

The  war  itself  only  proved  once  more  how  defec- 


THE  WINNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE    205 

« 

tive  was  England's  colonial  administration.  Three 
years  of  devastating  Indian  warfare  again  demon 
strated  the  necessity  of  an  adequate  defense  of  the 
frontier,  and  a  stricter  control  of  Indian  trade.  A 
customs  service  which  collected  annually  £2000  of 
revenue  and  cost  £7000  to  maintain,  manned  by 
officials  who  sold  flags  of  truce  to  traders  carrying 
ammunition  and  supplies  to  the  enemy,  was  seen  to 
be  but  an  expensive  luxury  in  time  of  peace  and  a 
military  weakness  in  time  of  war.  The  assistance 
which  Pitt,  and  Pitt  alone,  could  induce  the  colonists 
to  render,  however  adequate,  was  purchased  at  the 
price  of  concessions  which  deprived  the  governors  of 
all  but  nominal  influence,  while  placing  in  the  assem 
blies  the  effective  powers  of  government.  And  the 
results  achieved  by  the  Peace  of  Paris  but  confirmed 
the  conclusions  which  followed  from  the  experience 
of  the  war.  The  territory  then  acquired  by  England 
was  imperial  in  extent ;  and  the  acquisition  of  it  had 
in  six  years  raised  the  annual  cost  of  her  military 
and  naval  establishment  from  £70,000  to  £350,000. 
This  far-flung  and  diversified  empire  had  to  be  organ 
ized  in  order  to  be  governed,  and  defended  in  order 
to  be  maintained.  In  view  of  the  unprecedented  re 
sponsibilities  thus  thrust  upon  the  little  island  king 
dom,  it  seemed  that  the  oldest  and  most  prosperous, 
the  most  English  and  best  disposed  of  England's 
colonies  might  well  be  asked  to  submit  to  reasonable 
restraints  in  the  interests  of  the  empire,  and  in  their 
own  defense  to  furnish  a  moderate  assistance. 

Before  the  war  was  over  assiduous  royal  govern 
ors  were  offering  counsel  as  to  the  "  regulation  of 


206  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

the  North  American  governments."  If  there  is  to 
be  a  new  establishment  "  upon  a  true  English  con 
stitutional  bottom,"  wrote  Bernard  in  1761,  "it 
must  be  upon  a  new  plan,"  for  ••  there  is  no  system 
in  North  America  fit  to  be  made  a  module  of."  High 
officials  in  England  were  not  lacking  who  agreed 
with  the  Massachusetts  governor.  The  Peace  of  Paris 
was  scarcely  signed  before  Charles  Townshend,  First 
Lord  of  Trade  in  Bute's  Ministry,  proposed  that  the 
authority  of  Parliament  should  be  invoked  to  remodel 
the  colonial  Governments  upon  a  uniform  plan,  to 
pass  stringent  laws  for  enforcing  the  Trade  Acts, 
and  by  taxation  to  raise  a  revenue  in  America  for 
paying  the  salaries  of  royal  officials  and  for  the  main 
tenance  of  such  British  troops  as  might  be  stationed 
there  for  the  defense  of  the  colonies.  Townshend's 
proposals  would  doubtless  have  been  formulated  into 
law  had  it  not  been  for  the  fall  of  Bute's  Ministry 
in  April :  but  the  measures  which  were  finally  carried 
by  Grenville.  if  they  left  the  colonial  charters  un 
touched,  were  no  less  comprehensive,  in  respect  to 
the  purely  imperial  matters  of  trade  and  defense, 
than  those  initiated  by  his  brilliant  predecessor. 

Adequate  and  well-administered  laws  for  advanc 
ing  the  trade  and  securing  the  defense  of  the  empire 
were,  indeed,  the  primary  objects  of  Grenville's  co 
lonial  legislation.  Grenville,  who  was  the  fingers 
rather  than  the  soul  of  good  government,  could  not 
endure  the  lax  administration  of  the  customs  service 
which  in  the  course  of  years  had  given  the  colonies, 
as  it  were,  a  vested  interest  in  non-enforcement.  He 
accordingly  set  himself  to  correct  the  faults  which 


THE   WIXXIXG  OF   IXDEPEXDEXCE     207 

Walpole  had  condoned  in  the  interest  of  the  Han 
overian  succession,  and  which  Newcastle  had  utilized 
in  the  service  of  the  Whig  faction.  Commissioners 
of  the  customs,  long  regarding  their  offices  as  sinecures 
and  habitually  residing  in  England,  were  ordered  to 
repair  at  once  to  their  posts  in  America.  Additional 
revenue  officers  were  appointed  with  more  rigid  rules 
for  the  discharge  of  their  duties.  Governors  were 
once  more  instructed  to  give  adequate  support  in 
the  enforcement  of  the  Trade  Acts.  The  employ 
ment  of  general  writs,  or  -  writs  of  assistance,"  was  i 
authorized  to  facilitate  the  search  for  goods  illegally 
entered;  and  ships  of  war  were  stationed  on  the 
American  coast  to  aid  in  the  suppression  of  smug 
ging- 

More  careful  administrative  supervision  was  but 
the  prelude  to  additional  legislation.  Throughout 
the  eighteenth  century,  the  trade  of  the  Xorthern 
and  Middle  colonies  with  the  French  and  Spanish 
West  Indies  had  been  one  of  the  most  extensive 
branches  of  colonial  commerce.  To  divert  this  traffic 
to  the  British  sugar  islands,  Walpole  had  carried 
the  Molasses  Act  in  1733.  But  the  Molasses  Act. 
though  many  times  renewed  and  now  in  1763  once 
more  about  to  expire,  had  never  been  enforced,  and 
had  never,  therefore,  either  benefited  the  British 
sugar  planters  or  brought  any  revenue  into  the  treas 
ury.  It  was  to  secure  one  or  both  of  these  advantages 
that  Grenville  procured  from  Parliament  the  passage 
in  1764  of  the  law  known  as  the  Sugar  Act :  a  law 
which  reduced  the  duty  upon  foreign  molasses  im 
ported  into  the  continental  colonies  from  6(7.  to  3(7., 


208  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

and  imposed  new  duties  upon  coffee,  pimento,  white 
sugar,  and  indigo  from  the  Spanish  and  French 
West  Indies,  and  upon  wine  from  the  Madeiras  and 
the  Azores.  Even  such  men  as  Bernard,  Hutchin- 
son,  and  Golden  believed  that  the  new  duties  would 
destroy  a  trade  which  they  asserted  was  indispens 
able  to  the  Northern  colonies  and  highly  beneficial 
to  the  commerce  of  the  empire.  But  the  sugar  plant 
ers,  powerfully  represented  in  Parliament,  demanded 
protection,  while  to  Grenville's  mind  the  systematic 
violation  of  a  law  was  rather  an  argument  against 
its  repeal  than  an  evidence  of  its  impracticability. 
The  measure,  therefore,  became  a  law;  and  for  its 
better  enforcement  the  jurisdiction  of  the  admiralty 
courts  was  extended,  and  naval  officers  were  em 
powered  to  act  as  collectors  of  the  customs. 

Less  noticed  at  the  time,  but  scarcely  less  impor 
tant  in  its  effects  upon  trade  and  industry,  was  the 
law  passed  by  Parliament  in  the  same  year  for  reg 
ulating  colonial  currency.  With  the  rapid  develop 
ment  of  commerce  in  the  eighteenth  century,  and  on 
account  of  the  steady  flow  of  specie  to  London,  the 
colonies  had  commonly  resorted  to  the  use  of  paper 
money  as  a  legal  tender  in  the  payment  of  local  debts. 
Such  men  as  Franklin  and  Golden  defended  the 
practice  on  the  ground  of  necessity,  and  it  was  un 
doubtedly  true  that  without  the  issue  of  new  bills  of 
credit  the  colonies  could  not  have  given  the  military 
assistance  required  of  them  for  the  conquest  of  Can 
ada.  But  it  was  equally  true  that  in  most  colonies, 
except  Massachusetts  where  the  issues  had  been  re 
tired  in  1749,  and  New  York  where  their  par  value 


THE  WINNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE    209 

had  been  consistently  maintained,  the  evils  of  depre 
ciated  currency  had  long  existed  and  still  went  un- 
remedied.  Debtors  profited  at  the  expense  of  cred 
itors,  while  colonial  assemblies  often  took  advantage 
of  the  situation  to  pass  laws  enabling  the  American 
trader  to  avoid  meeting  his  just  obligations  to  Eng 
lish  merchants.  In  response  to  the  loud  complaints 
of  the  latter,  and  without  adequately  discriminating 
between  the  uses  and  the  abuses  of  a  colonial  paper 
currency,  Parliament  passed  the  act  "  to  prevent 
paper  bills  of  credit  hereafter  issued  in  any  of  his 
Majesty's  colonies,  from  being  declared  to  be  a  legal 
tender  in  payment  of  money,  and  to  prevent  the  legal 
tender  of  such  bills  as  are  now  subsisting1,  from  be- 

O" 

ing  prolonged  beyond  the  periods  limited  for  calling 
in  and  sinking  the  same." 

Meanwhile,  the  Ministry  of  Grenville  had  already 
turned  to  the  problem  of  defense,  so  inseparably 
connected  with  the  question  of  Indian  relations  and 
Western  settlement.  The  English  Government  had 
long  recognized  the  necessity  of  securing  the  friend- 
ship  of  the  Indians ;  and  to  this  end  it  had  fostered 
the  settlement  of  the  interior.  Indian  traders,  em 
ploying  methods  none  too  scrupulous,  had  been  en 
couraged  to  ply  their  traffic  beyond  the  mountains. 
Many  thousands  of  acres  of  land  had  been  granted, 
to  individuals  and  to  companies  of  promoters,  in  the 
belief  that  "  nothing  can  more  effectively  tend  to 
defeat  the  dangerous  designs  of  the  French,"  or  bet 
ter  enable  the  English  "  to  cultivate  a  friendship  and 
carry  on  a  more  extensive  commerce  with  the  Indians 
inhabiting  those  parts."  It  was  a  policy  which  all 


210  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

Americans  could  understand.  To  those  colonists  who 
had  fought  with  Washington  to  beat  back  the  tide 
of  Indian  massacre,  to  those  who  had  witnessed  the 
destruction  of  Fort  Duquesne,  the  conquest  of  Can 
ada  had  no  meaning  unless  it  opened  the  great  West 
to  free  settlement.  And  during  the  latter  years  of 
the  war,  thousands  of  families  in  all  the  old  provinces 
were  prepared,  as  Franklin  said,  "to  swarm,"  while 
many  hundreds  had  crossed  the  mountains  and  were 
already  seated  in  the  upper  valleys  of  the  Ohio. 

Yet  before  the  war  began,  the  Board  of  Trade  per 
ceived  that  the  policy  originally  advocated  required 
serious  modification.  It  was  obvious  enough  that  if 
titles  to  land  were  granted,  not  only  by  the  English 
Government,  but  also  by  different  colonies  claiming 
jurisdiction  over  the  same  territory,  endless  conflict 
and  litigation  would  be  the  sure  result.  And  it  soon 
appeared  that  the  actual  occupation  of  the  interior 
was  after  all  far  more  likely  to  provoke  the  hostility 
than  to  win  the  allegiance  of  the  Western  tribes. 
Overreached  and  defrauded  in  nearly  every  bargain, 
the  Indian  hated  the  trader  whose  lure  he  could  not 
resist,  and  with  the  coming  of  the  surveyor  and  the 
settler  was  well  aware  that  the  pretended  friend 
ship  of  the  English  was  but  a  thin  mask  to  conceal 
the  greed  of  men  who  had  no  other  desire  than  to 
rob  him  of  his  land.  During  the  latter  years  of  the 
war,  after  the  conquest  of  Canada  placed  the  allies 
of  France  under  the  heavy  hand  of  Amherst  and 
opened  the  way  to  actual  settlement,  it  became  clear 
that  an  ominous  spirit  of  unrest  was  spreading 
throughout  all  the  Northwest.  It  was  precisely  to 


THE  WINNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE    211 

guard  against  the  danger  of  an  Indian  uprising, 
which  in  fact  came  to  pass  in  the  formidable  con 
spiracy  of  Pontiac,  that  the  Board  of  Trade  formu 
lated  as  early  as  1761  the  policy  which  found  ex 
pression  in  the  famous  Proclamation  of  October  7, 
1763.  The  Proclamation  announced  the  intention  of 
the  English  Government  to  take  exclusive  control 
of  Indian  relations  and  Western  settlement.  "  For 
the  present,"  all  territory  west  of  the  Alleghanies, 
from  the  new  provinces  of  Florida  on  the  south  to 
Canada  on  the  north,  was  to  be  "  reserved  to  the 
Indians."  Governors  were  forbidden  to  grant  land 
there.  Those  who  had  already  settled  within  reserved 
territory  were  required  to  remove  forthwith ;  and 
every  Indian  trader  was  bound  to  give  security  for 
observing  such  rules  as  the  Imperial  Government 
might  establish.  It  was  the  intention  of  the  ministers, 
although  unfortunately  not  so  expressed  in  the  Proc 
lamation,  to  open  the  reserved  lands  to  settlement  as 
soon  as  Indian  titles  could  be  justly  extinguished.  In 
accordance  with  this  intention,  the  Government  ne 
gotiated  the  Treaty  of  Fort  Stanwix  in  1708,  by 
which  the  Six  Nations  ceded  to  the  Crown  their 
rights  to  lands  south  of  the  Ohio  ;  and  both  before 
and  after  that  event  it  was  seriously  concerned  with 
projects  for  new  colonies  in  the  interior.  The  most 
famous  of  these  projects  was  that  of  the  Vandalia 
Colony,  for  which  a  royal  grant  was  about  to  be  exe 
cuted  in  1775  when  the  promoters  were  requested 
to  "  wait  .  .  .  until  hostilities  .  .  .  between  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  Colonies  should  cease." 
Undoubtedly  the  Proclamation  of  1763  was  pri 


THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

marily  a  measure  of  defense  ;  but  even  if  strictly 
enforced,  which  was  found  to  be  quite  impossible  in 
fact,  it  could  not  alone  have  secured  unbroken  peace 
on  the  frontier.  Primitive  in  his  instincts  and  treach 
erous  in  his  nature,  the  Indian  harbored  in  his  venge 
ful  heart  the  rankling  memory  of  too  many  griev 
ances,  was  too  easily  swayed  by  his  ancient  but  now 
humiliated  French  allies,  to  be  held  in  check  without 
a  show  of  force  to  back  the  most  just  and  wisely  ad 
ministered  policy.  The  English  Government  would 
doubtless  have  been  content  to  leave  the  management 
of  defense  in  the  hands  of  the  colonists  had  they 
shown  a  disposition  to  undertake  it  in  a  systematic 
manner.  After  the  Albany  Plan  was  rejected  by  the 
assemblies,  the  Board  of  Trade  recommended  a  scheme 
by  which  commissioners,  appointed  in  each  colony  by 
the  assembly  and  approved  by  the  governor,  should 
determine  the  military  establishment  necessary  in 
time  of  peace,  and  apportion  the  expense  for  main 
taining  it  among  the  several  provinces  on  the  basis 
of  wealth  and  population.  Shirley  and  Franklin  were 
heartily  in  favor  of  such  a  plan.  But  there  is  no 
reason  to  think  that  a  single  assembly  could  have 
been  got  to  agree  to  it,  or  to  any  measure  of  a  like 
nature.  "  Everybody  cries,  a  union  is  absolutely  nec 
essary,"  said  Franklin  in  amused  disgust,  "  but  when 
it  comes  to  the  manner  and  form  of  the  union,  their 
weak  noddles  are  perfectly  distracted."  The  colonies 
being  thus  unwilling  to  cooperate  in  the  management 
of  their  own  defense,  the  Board  of  Trade  could  see 
no  alternative  but  an  "  interposition  of  the  authority 
of  Parliament." 


THE  WINNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE    213 

This  alternative  the  Government  therefore  adopted; 
and  the  permanent  establishment  of  British  troops 
in  America  to  overawe  the  Indians  and  maintain  the 
conquest  of  Canada,  already  proposed  by  Townshend, 
was  now  determined  upon  by  Grenville.  It  was  the 
opinion  of  Grenville,  as  well  as  of  most  men  in  Eng 
land  and  of  many  in  America,  that  the  colonies 
might  rightly  be  expected  to  contribute  something 
to  the  support  of  such  troops.  The  Mutiny  Act,  re 
quiring  the  assemblies  to  furnish  certain  utensils  and 
provisions  to  soldiers  in  barracks,  was  now  first  ex 
tended  to  the  colonies ;  and  for  raising  in  America  a 
portion  of  the  general  maintenance  fund,  the  minis 
try,  with  some  reluctance  on  the  part  of  Grenville, 
proposed  a  stamp  tax  as  the  most  equitable  and  the 
easiest  to  be  levied  and  collected.  "  I  am,  however, 
not  set  upon  this  tax,"  said  Grenville.  "  If  the  Amer 
icans  dislike  it,  and  prefer  any  other  method  of  raising 
the  money  themselves,  I  shall  be  content."  It  was 
soon  apparent  that  the  Americans  did  dislike  it ;  and 
in  February,  1765,  Franklin,  speaking  for  the  colo 
nial  agents  then  in  England,  urged  that  the  money 
be  raised  in  "  the  old  constitutional  way,"  by  requi 
sitions  upon  the  several  assemblies.  "  Can  you  agree 
on  the  proportions  each  colony  should  raise  ?  "  in 
quired  the  minister.  Franklin  admitted  that  it  was 
impossible  ;  and  Grenville,  more  concerned  with  what 
was  equitable  than  with  what  was  politic,  pressed  for 
ward  with  his  measure  to  require  the  use  of  stamped 
paper  for  nearly  all  legal  documents  and  customs 
papers,  for  appointments  to  offices  carrying  a  salary 
of  £20  except  military  and  judicial  offices,  for  grants 


214  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

of  franchises,  for  licenses  to  sell  liquor,  for  packages 
containing  playing-cards  and  dice,  for  all  pamphlets, 
advertisements,  hand-bills,  calendars,  almanacs,  and 
newspapers.  The  revenue  which  might  be  raised  by 
this  law,  estimated  at  £60,000,  was  to  be  paid  into 
the  exchequer,  and  to  be  expended  solely  for  support 
ing  the  British  troops  in  America. 

At  the  time  there  were  few  men  either  in  England 
or  in  the  colonies  who  imagined  that  the  Stamp  Act- 
would  release  forces  that  were  destined  to  disrupt 
the  empire.  It  was  scarcely  debated  in  the  House  of 
Commons.  "  There  has  been  nothing  of  note  in  Par 
liament,"  wrote  Horace  Walpole,  "  but  one  slight 
day  on  the  American  taxes."  Ana  even  in  America 
few  men  supposed  that  it  would  not  be  executed, 
however  much  they  might  dislike  it.  It  was  impos 
sible  to  prevent  the  passage  of  the  act,  Franklin  as 
sured  his  friends.  "  We  might  as  well  have  hindered 
the  sun's  setting.  That  we  could  not  do.  But  since 
't  is  down,  my  friend,  ...  let  us  make  as  good  a 
night  as  we  can.  We  may  still  light  candles."  It  was 
not  candles  alone  that  were  lighted,  but  a  conflagra 
tion  ;  a  conflagration  which  soon  spread  from  the  New 
World  to  the  Old  and  burned  away,  as  with  a  reno 
vating  flame,  so  much  that  was  both  good  and  bad 
in  that  amiable  eighteenth-century  society. 

II 

If  the  experience  of  the  last  French  war  convinced 
the  English  Government  that  a  stricter  control  of 
the  colonies  was  necessary,  the  conquest  of  Canada 
convinced  the  colonists  that  they  could  defend  them- 


THE  WINNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE    215 

selves,  and  at  the  same  time  removed  the  only  dan 
ger  which  had  ever  made  them  feel  the  need  of  Eng 
lish  protection.  As  early  as  1711,  Le  Rondo  Denys 
warned  the  New  Englanders  that  the  expulsion  of 
the  French  from  North  America  would  leave  En"1- 

eD 

land  free  to  suppress  colonial  liberties,  while  another 
French  writer  predicted  that  it  would  rather  enable 
the  colonies  to  "  unite,  shake  off  the  yoke  of  the 
English  monarchy,  and  erect  themselves  into  a 
democracy."  The  prediction  was  often  repeated.  Be 
tween  1730  and  1763,  many  men,  among  them 
Montesquieu,  Peter  Kalm,  and  Turgot,  asserted  that 
colonial  dependence  upon  England  would  not  long 
outlast  the  French  occupation  of  Canada.  The  op 
position  to  Grenville's  colonial  legislation,  which 
gathered  force  with  every  additional  measure,  seemed 
now  about  to  confirm  these  predictions. 

No  single  law  of  these  early  years  would  have 
caused  its  proper  part  of  the  resistance  which  all  of 
them  in  fact  brought  about.  A  measure  of  oppres 
sion  could  be  attributed  to  each  of  them,  but  the 
pressure  of  any  one  was  not  felt  by  all  classes  or  all 
colonies  alike.  The  Proclamation  of  1763  was  an 
offense  chiefly  to  speculators  in  land,  and  to  those 
border  communities  that  had  fought  to  open  free  pas 
sage  to  the  West  only  to  find  the  fertile  Ohio  valleys 
"  reserved  to  the  Indians  "  —  the  very  tribes  which 
had  brought  death  and  desolation  to  the  frontier. 
The  Sugar  Act  was  a  greater  grievance  to  the  New 
England  distiller  of  rum  and  the  exporters  of  fish 
and  lumber  than  it  was  to  the  rice  and  tobacco 
planters  of  the  South.  New  York  merchants  were 


216  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

seriously  affected  by  the  Currency  Act,  which 
scarcely  touched  Massachusetts,  and  which,  in  Vir 
ginia,  meant  money  in  the  pockets  of  creditors,  but 
bore  hardly  on  debtors  and  the  speculators  who 
bought  silver  at  Williamsburg  in  depreciated  paper 
in  order  to  sell  it  at  par  in  Philadelphia.  The  famous 
Stamp  Act  itself  chiefly  concerned  the  printers,  law 
yers,  officeholders,  the  users  of  the  custom-house, 
and  the  litigious  class  that  employed  the  courts  to 
enforce  or  resist  the  payment  of  debt. 

Only  when  regarded  as  a  whole  was  the  policy  of 
Grenville  seen  to  spell  disaster.  Each  new  law  seemed 
carefully  designed  to  increase  the  burdens  imposed 
by  every  other.  The  Sugar  Act,  for  example,  taken 
by  itself,  was  perhaps  the  most  grievous  of  all.  The 
British  sugar  islands,  to  which  it  virtually  restricted 
the  West  Indian  trade  of  the  Northern  colonies, 
offered  no  sufficient  market  for  their  lumber  and 
provisions,  nor  could  they,  like  the  Spanish  islands, 
furnish  the  silver  needed  by  continental  merchants 
to  settle  London  balances  on  account  of  imported 
English  commodities.  Exports  to  the  West  Indies  and 
imports  from  England  must,  therefore,  be  reduced ; 
the  one  event  would  cripple  essential  colonial  indus 
tries  such  as  the  fisheries  and  the  distilling  of  rum, 
while  the  other  would  force  the  colonists  to  devote 
themselves  to  those  very  domestic  manufactures 
which  it  was  the  policy  of  the  English  Government 
to  discourage.  These  disadvantages,  which  attached 
to  the  Sugar  Act  itself,  were  accentuated  by  almost 
every  other  cardinal  measure  of  Grenville's  colonial 
policy.  With  the  chief  source  of  colonial  specie  cut 


THE  WINNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE    217 

off,  the  Stamp  Act  increased  the  demand  for  it  by 
£60,000  ;  when  the  need  for  paper  money  as  a  legal 
tender  was  more  than  ever  felt,  its  further  use  was 
shortly  to  be  forbidden  altogether ;  when  the  dimin 
ished  demand  for  labor,  occasioned  by  restrictions 
upon  the  West  Indian  trade,  was  likely  to  stimulate 
migration  into  the  interior,  the  West  was  closed  to 
settlement.  And  the  close  of  the  French  war,  which 
had  raised  the  debt  of  the  colonies  to  an  unprece 
dented  figure,  was  the  moment  selected  for  restrict 
ing  trade,  remodeling  the  monetary  system,  and  im 
posing  upon  the  colonies  taxes  for  protection  against 
a  danger  which  no  longer  threatened.  Little  wonder 
that  to  the  colonial  mind  the  measures  of  Grenville 
carried  all  the  force  of  an  argument  from  design  : 
any  part,  separated  from  the  whole,  might  signify 
nothing ;  the  perfect  correlation  of  the  completed 
scheme  was  evidence  enough  that  somewhere  a  mal 
ignant  purpose  was  at  work  bent  upon  the  destruc 
tion  of  English  liberties. 

Members  of  the  House  of  Commons  who  yawned 
while  voting  the  new  laws  were  amazed  at  the  com 
motion  they  raised  in  America.  In  all  the  colonies 
scarcely  a  man  was  to  be  found  to  defend  any  of  them. 
Those  afterwards  known  as  loyalists,  with  Hutchin- 
son,  Colden,  Dulaney,  and  Galloway  as  their  most 
distinguished  representatives,  were  of  one  accord 
with  the  Lees,  with  Patrick  Henry,  with  Dickinson, 
and  the  Adamses,  in  asserting  that  the  Stamp  Act 
and  the  Sugar  Act  were  inexpedient  and  unjust. 
Hutchinson  urged  the  repeal  of  both  measures.  Colden 
assured  the  Board  of  Trade  that  the  Currency  Act, 


218  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

so  far  as  New  York  was  concerned,  was  uncalled  for 
and  very  prejudicial  to  colonial  industry  and  the 
manufactures  of  England.  The  three-penny  duty  on 
molasses,  said  Samuel  Adams,  will  make  useless  one 
third  of  the  fish  now  caught,  and  so  remittances  to 
Spain,  Portugal,  and  other  countries, "  through  which 
money  circulates  into  England  for  the  purchase  of  her 
goods  of  all  kinds,"  must  cease.  "  Unless  we  are 
allowed  a  paper  currency,"  Daniel  Coxe  wrote  to 
Reed,  "  they  need  not  send  tax  gatherers,  for  they 
can  gather  nothing —  never  was  money  so  very  scarce 
as  now."  Governor  Bernard  expressed  the  belief  that 
if  the  proposed  measures  were  executed  "  there  will 
soon  be  an  end  to  the  specie  currency  of  Massachu 
setts."  Undoubtedly  the  general  opinion  of  America 
was  voiced  by  the  Stamp  Act  Congress  when  it  af 
firmed  that  the  payment  of  the  new  duties  would 
prove,  "  from  the  scarcity  of  specie,  .  .  ,  absolutely 
impracticable,"  and  render  the  colonists  "unable  to 
purchase  the  manufactures  of  Great  Britain." 

But  the  colonists  did  not  ground  their  case  upon 
expediency  alone,  or  rest  content  with  argument  and 
protest.  And  the  bad  eminence  of  the  Stamp  Act 
was  due  to  the  fact  that  it  alone,  of  all  the  measures 
of  Grenville,  enabled  the  defenders  of  colonial  rights 
to  shift  the  issue  in  debate  and  bring  deeds  to  the 
support  of  words.  Last  of  all  the  cardinal  measures 
to  be  enacted,  the  Stamp  Act  attracted  to  itself  the 
multiplied  resentments  accumulated  by  two  years  of 
hostile  legislation.  It  alone  could  with  plausible  argu 
ments  be  declared  illegal  as  well  as  unjust,  and  it  was 
the  one  of  all  most  open  to  easy  and  conspicuous 


THE  WINNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE    219 

nullification  in  fact.  The  Proclamation  of  1763  was, 
indeed,  nullified  almost  as  effectively,  but  with  no 
accompaniment  of  harangue,  or  of  burning  effigies,  or 
crowds  of  angry  men  laying  violent  hands  upon  the 
law's  officials.  If  the  Stamp  Act  seemed  the  one  in 
tolerable  grievance,  round  which  the  decisive  conflict 
raged,  it  was  because  it  raised  the  issue  of  funda 
mental  rights,  and  because  it  could  be  of  no  effect 
without  its  material  symbols  —  concrete  and  visible 
bundles  of  stamped  papers  which  could  be  seen  and 
handled  as  soon  as  they  were  landed,  and  the  very 
appearance  of  which  was  a  challenge  to  action. 

While  all  Americans  agreed  that  the  Stamp  Act, 
like  the  Sugar  Act,  was  unjust,  or  at  least  inexpedi 
ent,  not  all  affirmed  that  it  was  illegal.  Hutchinson 
was  one  of  many  who  protested  against  the  law,  but 
admitted  that  Parliament  had  not  exceeded  its  au 
thority  in  passing  it.  But  the  colonial  assemblies,  and 
a  host  of  busy  pamphleteers  who  set  themselves  to 
expose  the  pernicious  act,  agreed  with  Samuel  Adams 
and  Patrick  Henry,  with  the  conciliatory  John  Dick 
inson,  and  the  learned  Dulaney,  that  the  colonists, 
possessing  all  the  rights  of  native-born  Englishmen, 
could  not  legally  be  deprived  of  that  fundamental 
rightoFall,  the  right  of  being  taxed  only  by  repre 
sentatives  of  their  own  choosing.  Duties  laid  to  reg 
ulate  trade,  from  which  a  revenue  was  sometimes 
derived,  were  either  declared  not  to  be  taxes,  or  else 
were  distinguished,  as  "external"  taxes  which  Par 
liament  was  competent  to  impose,  from  "  internal " 
taxes  which  Parliament  could  impose  only  upon  those 
who  were  represented  in  that  body.  And  the  colonies 


220  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

were  not  represented  in  Parliament ;  no,  not  even  in 
that  "virtual"  sense  which  might  be  affirmed  in 
the  case  of  many  unf  ranchised  English  cities,  such  as 
Manchester  and  Liverpool ;  from  which  it  followed 
that  the  Stamp  Act,  unquestionably  an  internal  tax, 
was  a  manifest  violation  of  colonial  rights. 

The  ablest  arguments  against  the  Stamp  Act  were 
those  set  forth  by  John  Dickinson,  of  Philadelphia, 
and  Daniel  Dulaney,  of  Maryland:  the  ablest  and 
the  best  tempered.  Unfortunately,  the  conciliatory 
note  was  all  but  lost  in  the  chorus  of  angry  protest 
and  bitter  denunciation  that  was  designed  to  spur  the 
Americans  on  to  reckless  action  rather  than  to  in 
duce  the  ministers  to  withdraw  an  unwise  measure. 
Clever  lawyers  seeking  political  advantage,  such  as 
John  Morin  Scott ;  zealots  who  knew  not  the  mean 
ing  of  compromise,  such  as  Patrick  Henry  and  Samuel 
Adams;  preachers  of  the  gospel,  such  as  Jonathan 
Mayhew,  who  took  this  occasion  to  denounce  the 
doctrine  of  passive  resistance,  and  with  over-subtle 
logic  identified  the  defense  of  civil  liberty  with  the 
cause  of  religion  and  morality  ;  —  such  men  as  these, 
with  intention  or  all  unwittingly  raised  public  opin 
ion  to  that  high  tension  from  which  spring  insurrec 
tion  and  the  irresponsible  action  of  mobs.  Every 
where  stamp  distributors,  voluntarily  or  to  the 
accompaniment  of  threats,  resigned  their  offices. 
Stamped  papers  were  no  sooner  landed  than  they 
were  seized  and  destroyed,  or  returned  to  England, 
or  transmitted  for  safe-keeping  to  the  custody  of 
local  officials  pledged  not  to  deliver  them.  Often  in 
spired  and  sometimes  led  by  citizens  of  repute  who 


THE  WINNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE    221 

were  "not  averse  to  a  little  rioting,"  the  mobs  were 
recruited  from  the  quays  and  the  grogshops,  and  once 
in  action  were  difficult  to  control.  In  true  mob  fash 
ion  they  testified  to  their  patriotism  by  parading  the 
streets  at  night,  "breaking  a  few  glass  windows,'* 
and  destroying  the  property  of  men,  such  as  Hutch- 
inson  and  Golden,  whose  unseemly  wealth  or  luke 
warm  opinions  were  an  offense  to  stalwart  defenders 
of  liberty. 

The  November  riots  disposed  of  the  stamps  but 
not  of  the  Stamp  Act.  Business  had  to  go  on  as 
usual  without  stamps  or  cease  altogether.  Either 
course  would  make  the  law  of  no  effect ;  but  the  latter 
course  would  be  a  strictly  constitutional  method  of 
resistance,  while  the  former  would  involve  a  violation 
of  law.  Many  preferred  the  constitutional  method. 
Let  the  courts  adjourn,  they  said,  and  offices  remain 
vacant ;  let  print-shops  close,  and  ships  lie  in  har 
bor:  English  merchants  will  soon  enough  feel  the 
pressure  of  slack  business  and  force  ministers  to  an 
other  line  of  conduct.  A  good  plan  enough  for  the 
man  of  independent  fortune,  for  the  judge  whose  in 
come  was  assured,  or  the  thrifty  merchant  who,  sign 
ing  a  non-importation  agreement,  had  laid  in  a  stock 
of  goods  to  be  sold  at  high  prices.  But  the  wage- 
earner,  the  small  shopkeeper  who  was  soon  sold  out, 
the  printer  who  lived  on  his  weekly  margin  of  profit, 
the  rising  lawyer  whose  income  rose  or  fell  with  his 
fees  :  such  men  were  of  another  mind.  The  inactivity 
of  the  courts  "  will  make  a  large  chasm  in  my  affairs, 
if  it  should  not  reduce  me  to  distress,"  John  Adams 
confides  to  his  Diary  in  December  ;  and  adds  naively 


THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

that  he  was  just  on  the  point  of  winning  a  reputation 
and  a  competence  "  when  this  execrable  project  was 
set  on  foot  for  my  ruin  as  well  as  that  of  my  coun 
try."  Men  who  saw  their  incomes  dwindle  were  easily 
disposed  to  think  that  the  cessation  of  business  was 
an  admission  of  the  legitimacy  of  the  law,  a  kind  of 
betrayal  of  the  cause.  And  it  was  to  counteract  the 
influence  of  lukewarm  conservatives,  men  who  were 
content  to  "turn  and  shift,  to  luff  up,  and  bear 
away,"  that  those  who  regarded  themselves  as  the 
only  true  patriots,  uniting  in  an  association  of  the 
Sons  of  Liberty,  set  about  the  task  of  "  putting 
business  in  motion  again  in  the  usual  channels  with 
out  stamps." 

The  object  of  the  Sons  of  Liberty  was  in  part, 
but  only  in  part,  attained.  Newspapers  w^ere  printed 
as  usual,  and  certainly  there  was  no  lack  of  pam 
phlets.  Retailers  did  not  hesitate  to  sell  playing-cards 
or  dice,  nor  were  the  grogshops  closed  for  want  of 
stamped  licenses.  Yet  the  courts  of  law  were  nearly 
everywhere  closed  for  a  time,  and  if  the  clamor  of 
creditors  and  the  influence  of  lawyers  forced  them  to 
open  in  most  places,  in  New  York  and  Massachu 
setts,  at  least,  they  did  little  business  or  none  at  all 
so  long  as  the  Stamp  Act  remained  on  the  statute- 
book.  But  it  was  in  connection  with  commercial 
activities  that  the  plan  of  the  conservatives  was 
most  effective.  Non-importation  agreements,  gener 
ally  signed  by  the  merchants,  were  the  more  readily 
kept  because  the  customs  officials  were  inclined  to 
refuse  any  but  stamped  clearance  papers,  while  the 
war  vessels  in  the  harbors  intercepted  ships  that 


THE  WINNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE    223 

attempted  to  sail  without  them.  As  the  conservatives 
had  predicted,  the  effect  was  soon  felt  in  England. 
Thousands  of  artisans  in  Manchester  and  Leeds 
were  thrown  out  of  employment.  Glasgow,  more 
dependent  than  other  cities  upon  the  A  merican  mar 
ket,  loudly  complained  that  its  ruin  was  impending ; 
and  the  merchants  of  London,  Bristol,  and  many 
other  towns,  asserting  that  American  importers  were 
indebted  to  them  several  million  pounds  sterling, 
which  they  were  willing  but  unable  to  pay,  petitioned 
Parliament  to  take  immediate  action  for  their  relief. 
And,  indeed,  to  ignore  the  situation  in  America 
was  now  impossible.  The  law  had  to  be  withdrawn 
or  made  effective  by  force  of  arms.  When  the  mat 
ter  came  up  in  Parliament  in  January,  1766,  Gren- 
ville,  as  leader  of  the  opposition,  still  claimed  that  the 
Stamp  Act  was  a  reasonable  measure,  and  one  that 
must  be  maintained,  more  than  ever  now  that  the 
colonists  had  insolently  denied  its  legality,  and  with 
violence  amounting  to  insurrection  prevented  its 
enforcement.  But  the  Rockingham  Whigs,  whose 
traditions,  even  if  somewhat  obscured,  marked  them 
out  as  the  defenders  of  English  liberties,  were 
pledged  to  the  repeal  of  the  unfortunate  law.  Lord 
Camden,  in  defense  of  the  colonial  contention,  staked 
his  legal  reputation  on  the  assertion  that  Parliament 
had  no  right  to  tax  America.  Pitt  was  of  the  same 
opinion.  Following  closely  the  argument  in  Dulaney's 
pamphlet,  which  he  held  up  as  a  masterly  perform 
ance,  the  Great  Commoner  declared  that  "  taxation 
is  no  part  of  the  governing  or  legislating  power." 
He  was  told  that  America  had  resisted.  "  I  rejoice 


224  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

that  America  has  resisted,"  he  cried  in  words  that 
sounded  a  trumpet  call  throughout  the  colonies. 
"  Three  millions  of  people,  so  dead  to  all  the  feelings 
of  liberty  as  voluntarily  to  submit  to  be  slaves,  would 
have  been  fit  instruments  to  make  slaves  of  all  the 
rest.  .  .  .  America,  if  she  fell,  would  fall  like  the 
strong  man  with  his  arms  around  the  pillars  of 
the  constitution."  More  convincing  than  the  elo 
quence  of  Pitt  was  the  evidence  offered  by  the 
merchants'  petitions,  and  by  the  shrewd  and  weighty 
replies  of  Franklin  in  his  famous  examination  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  to  show  that  the  policy  of  Gren- 
ville,  legal  or  not,  was  an  economic  blunder.  The 
Stamp  Act  was  accordingly  repealed,  March  18, 
1766 ;  and  some  new  laws  were  passed  intended  to 
remove  the  obstacles  which  made  it  difficult  for  the 
Northern  and  Middle  colonies  to  trade  directly  with 
England.  Yet  the  ministers  had  no  intention  of  yield 
ing  on  the  main  point:  the  3c?.  duty  on  foreign  mo 
lasses  was  abolished  only  to  be  replaced  by  a  If?,  duty 
on  all  molasses ;  the  theoretical  right  of  Parliament 
to  bind  the  colonies  in  all  matters  whatever  was  for 
mally  asserted  in  the  Declaratory  Act ;  while  the  re- 
enactment  of  the  Mutiny  Law  indicated  that  the 
practical  policy  of  establishing  British  troops  in 
America  for  defense  was  to  be  continued. 

Ill 

The  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  was  the  occasion  for 
general  rejoicing  in  America.  Loyal  addresses  were 
voted  to  the  king,  and  statues  erected  to  commem- 


THE  WINNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE    225 

orate  the  virtues  and  achievements  of  Pitt.  Imper 
fectly  aware  of  the  conditions  in  England  that  had 
contributed  to  the  happy  event,  it  was  taken  by  the 
colonists  to  mean  that  their  theory  of  the  constitu 
tion  had  been  accepted.  The  Declaratory  Act  was 
thought  to  be  no  more  than  a  formal  concession  to 
the  dignity  of  government ;  and  although  the  Mutiny 
Act  was  causing  trouble  in  New  York,  and  merchants 
were  petitioning  for  a  further  modification  of  the 
Trade  Laws,  most  men  looked  forward  to  the  speedy 
reestablishment  of  the  old-time  cordial  relations  be 
tween  the  two  countries.  The  Sons  of  Liberty  no 
longer  assembled  ;  rioting  ceased  ;  the  noise  of  inces 
sant  debate  was  stilled.  "  The  repeal  of  the  Stamp 
Act,"  John  Adams  wrote  in  November,  1766,  "  has 
hushed  into  silence  almost  every  popular  clamor, 
and  composed  every  wave  of  popular  disorder  into 
a  smooth  and  peaceful  calm." 

And  no  doubt  most  Englishmen  would  willingly 
have  let  the  question  rest.  But  an  unwise  king,  stub 
bornly  bent  on  having  his  way ;  precise  administrators 
of  the  Grenville  type,  concerned  for  the  loss  of  a  far 
thing  due;  egoists  like  Wedderburne,  profoundly 
ignorant  of  colonial  affairs,  convulsed  and  readily 
convinced  by  the  light  sarcasms  with  which  Soame 
Jenyns  disposed  of  the  pretensions  of  "  our  American 
colonies  "  :  such  men  waited  only  the  opportune  mo 
ment  for  retrieving  a  humiliating  defeat.  That  mo 
ment  came  with  the  mischance  that  clouded  the  mind 
of  Pitt  and  withdrew  him  from  the  direction  of  a 
government  of  all  the  factions.  The  responsibility 
relinquished  by  the  Great  Commoner  was  assumed 


THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

by  Charles  Townshend,  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer, 
a  man  well  fitted  to  foster  the  spirit  of  discord  whicK 
then  reigned,  to  the  king's  great  content,  in  that 
"  mosaic"  ministry.  In  January,  1767,  without  the 
knowledge  of  the  Cabinet,  this  "director  of  the 
revels  "  pledged  himself  in  the  House  of  Commons 
to  find  "  a  mode  by  which  a  revenue  may  be  drawn 
from  America  without  offense."  Since  the  Americans 
admit  that  external  taxes  are  legal,  he  said,  let  us 
lay  an  external  tax.  Backed  by  the  king,  he  accord 
ingly  procured  from  Parliament,  in  May  of  the  same 
year,  an  act  laying  duties  on  glass,  red  and  white 
lead,  paper,  and  tea.  The  revenue  to  be  derived  from 
the  law,  estimated  at  X40,000,  was  to  be  applied  to 
the  payment  of  the  salaries  of  royal  governors  and 
of  judges  in  colonial  courts.  A  second  act  established 
a  board  of  commissioners  to  be  stationed  in  America 
for  the  better  enforcement  of  the  Trade  Acts ;  while 
a  third,  known  as  the  Restraining  Act.  suspended 
the  New  York  Assembly  until  it  should  have  made 
provision  for  the  troops  according  to  the  terms  of  the 
Mutiny  Act. 

The  Townshend  Acts  revived  the  old  controversy, 
not  quite  in  the  old  manner.  Mobs  were  less  in  evi 
dence  than  in  1765,  although  riots  occasioned  by 
business  depression  disturbed  the  peace  of  New  York 
in  the  winter  of  1770,  and  the  presence  of  the  troops 
in  Boston,  the  very  sight  of  which  was  an  offense  to 
that  civic  community,  resulted  in  the  famous  "  mas 
sacre  "  of  the  same  year.  Yet  the  duties  were  collected 
without  much  difficulty ;  and  although  the  income 
derived  from  them  amounted  to  almost  nothing,  the 


THE   WINNING   OF   INDEPENDENCE    227 

commissioners  reorganized  the  customs  service  so  suc 
cessfully  that  an  annual  revenue  of  £30,000  was  ob 
tained  at  a  cost  of  £13,000  to  collect.  Forcible  re 
sistance  was,  indeed,  less  practicable  in  dealing  with 
the  Townsheiid  Acts  than  in  the  case  of  the  Stamp 
Act;  but  it  was  also  true  that  men  of  character  and 
substance,  many  of  whom  in  1765  had  not  been 
"  averse  to  a  little  rioting,"  now  realized  that  mobs 
and  the  popular  mass  meeting  undermined  at  once 
the  security  of  property  rights  and  their  own  long- 
established  supremacy  in  colonial  politics.  Desiring 
to  protect  their  privileges  against  encroachment  from 
the  English  Government  without  sharing  them  with 
the  unfranchised  populace,  they  were  therefore  more 
concerned  than  before  to  employ  only  constitutional 
and  peaceful  methods  of  obtaining  redress.  To  this 
end  they  resorted  to  non-importation  agreements,  to 
petition  and  protest,  so  well  according  with  English 
tradition,  and  to  the  reasoned  argument,  of  which 
the  most  notable  in  this  period  was  that  series  of 
Farmer  s  Letters  which  made  the  name  of  John 
Dickinson  familiar  in  Europe  and  a  household  word 
throughout  the  colonies. 

If  in  point  of  action  the  defenders  of  colonial 
rights  were  inclined  to  greater  moderation,  in  point 
of  constitutional  theory  they  were  now  constrained 
to  take  a  more  radical  stand.  When  Franklin,  in 
his  examination  before  the  House  of  Commons  in 
1766,  was  pressed  by  Townshend  to  say  whether 
Americans  might  not  as  readily  object  to  external 
as  to  internal  taxes,  he  shrewdly  replied  :  "•  Many 
arguments  have  lately  been  used  here  to  show  them 


228  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

that  there  is  no  difference ;  ...  at  present  they  do 
not  reason  so ;  but  in  time  they  may  possibly  be 
convinced  by  these  arguments."  That  time  was  now 
at  hand.  As  early  as  1766,  Richard  Bland,  of  Vir 
ginia,  had  declared  that  the  colonies,  like  Hanover, 
were  bound  to  England  only  through  the  Crown. 
This  might  be  over-bold  ;  but  the  old  argument  was 
inadequate  to  meet  the  present  dangers,  inasmuch 
as  the  Townshend  Acts,  the  establishment  of  troops 
in  Boston  and  New  York,  and  the  attempt  to  force 
Massachusetts  to  rescind  her  resolutions  of  protest, 
all  seemed  more  designed  to  restrict  the  legislative 
independence  of  the  colonies  than  to  assert  the  right 
of  Parliamentary  taxation.  Franklin  himself,  to 
whom  it  scarcely  occurred  in  1765  that  the  legality 
of  the  Stamp  Act  might  be  denied,  could  not  now 
master  the  Massachusetts  principle  of  "  subordina 
tion,"  or  understand  what  that  distinction  was  which 
Dickinson  labored  to  draw  between  the  right  of  tax 
ing  the  colonies  and  the  right  of  regulating  their 
trade.  "  The  more  I  have  thought  and  read  on  the 
subject,"  he  wrote  in  1768,  "the  more  I  find  .  .  . 
that  no  middle  doctrine  can  well  be  maintained,  I 
mean  not  clearly  with  intelligible  arguments.  Some 
thing  might  be  made  of  either  of  the  extremes :  that 
Parliament  has  a  power  to  make  all  laws  for  us,  or 
that  it  has  a  power  to  make  no  laws  for  us ;  and  I 
think  the  arguments  for  the  latter  more  numerous 
and  weighty  than  those  for  the  former."  Before  the 
Townshend  duties  were  repealed,  the  colonists  were 
entirely  familiar  with  the  doctrine  of  complete  legis 
lative  independence ;  and  the  popular  cry  of  "  no 


THE  WINNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE    229 

representation  no  taxation"  began  to  be  replaced 
by  the  far  more  radical  cry  of  "  no  representation 
no  legislation." 

In  support  of  argument  and  protest,  the  colonists 
once  more  resorted  to  the  practice  of  non-importa 
tion.  The  earliest  agreement  was  signed  by  Boston 
merchants  in  October,  1767.  But  a  far  more  rigid 
association,  not  to  import  with  trifling  exceptions 
any  goods  from  England  or  Holland,  was  formed  in 
New  York  in  August,  1768,  and  agreed  to  by  the 
merchants  in  most  colonies.  Better  observed  in  New 
York  than  elsewhere,  it  was  so  far  maintained  as 
to  reduce  the  English  importations  into  the  Middle 
and  Northern  colonies  from  £1,333,000  in  1768  to 
£480,000  in  1769.  In  inducing  the  Ministry  of 
Lord  North  to  repeal  the  duties  the  association 
played  its  part ;  but  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
conservatives  it  was  not  without  its  disadvantages. 
The  importation  of  goods  from  Holland  was  forbid 
den  in  order  to  catch  the  smuggler ;  but  the  smug 
gler  ignored  the  agreement  as  readily  as  he  signed 
it.  Yet  for  a  time  the  association  was  no  burden  to 
the  fair  trader,  who  in  anticipation  had  doubled  his 
orders,  or  sold  "old,  moth-eaten  goods"  at  high 
prices.  The  merchants  were  "great  patriots,"  Chand 
ler  told  John  Adams,  "  while  their  old  rags  lasted ; 
but  as  soon  as  they  were  sold  at  enormous  prices, 
they  were  for  importing."  And  in  truth  the  fair 
trader's  monopoly  could  not  outlast  his  stock,  whereas 
the  smuggler's  business  improved  the  longer  the  as 
sociation  endured.  In  the  spring  of  1770,  the  New 
York  merchants,  with  their  shelves  empty,  complaining 


230  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

that  Boston  was  more  active  in  "  resolving  what  it 
ought  to  do  than  in  doing  what  it  had  resolved," 
declared  that  the  association  no  longer  served  a  any 
other  purpose  than  tying  the  hands  of  honest  men, 
to  let  rogues,  smugglers,  and  men  of  no  character 
plunder  their  country."  Supported  by  a  majority  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  city,  and  undeterred  by  the 
angry  protests  of  the  Sons  of  Liberty,  they  accord 
ingly  agreed  to  "a  general  importation  of  goods 
from  Great  Britain,  except  teas  and  other  articles 
which  are  or  may  be  taxed."  Boston  and  Philadel 
phia  soon  followed  the  lead  of  New  York,  and  before 
the  year  was  out  the  policy  of  absolute  non-importa 
tion  had  broken  down. 

The  adoption  of  the  modified  non-importation 
policy  was  the  more  readily  approved  by  conserva 
tive  patriots  everywhere  inasmuch  as  the  English 
Government  had  already  made  concessions  on  its 
part.  It  was  on  March  5,  the  very  day  of  the  Bos 
ton  massacre,  that  Lord  North,  characterizing  the 
law  as  "  preposterous,"  moved  the  repeal  of  all  the 
Townshend  duties,  saving,  for  principle's  sake,  that 
on  tea  alone.  For  the  second  time  a  crisis  seemed 
safely  passed,  and  cordial  relations  seemed  once  more 
restored.  British  officers  concerned  in  the  massacre, 
defended  by  the  patriots  John  Adams  and  Josiah 
Quincy,  were  honorably  acquitted  in  a  Massachu 
setts  court.  The  New  York  Assembly,  recently  per 
mitted  to  issue  bills  of  credit  to  the  extent  of  ,£120,- 
000,  made  annual  provision  for  the  troops,  and 
friendly  relations  between  soldiers  and  citizens  were 
again  resumed.  Imports  from  England  at  once  rose 


THE   WINNING  OF   INDEPENDENCE    231 

to  an  unprecedented  figure.  Tea  was  procured  from 
Holland ;  the  3d.  duty  well-nigh  forgotten.  In  Eng 
land  most  men  regarded  the  ten  years'  quarrel  as 
finally  composed.  For  three  years  the  colonies  were 
barely  once  mentioned  in  Parliament,  and  a  page  or 
two  of  the  Annual  Register  was  thought  sufficient 
space  to  chronicle  the  doings  of  America.  America 
also  seemed  content.  During  these  uneventful  years 
the  high  enthusiasm  for  liberty  burned  low,  even  in 
Massachusetts.  "How  easily  the  people  change," 
laments  John  Adams,  "  and  give  up  their  friends 
and  their  interests."  And  Samuel  Adams  himself, 
implacable  patriot,  working  as  tirelessly  as  ever,  but 
deserted  by  Hancock  and  Otis  and  half  his  quondam 
supporters,  had  so  far  lost  his  commanding  influence 
as  to  inspire  the  sympathy  of  his  friends  and  the 
tolerant  pity  of  his  enemies. 

It  was  hardly  for  the  purpose  of  restoring  the 
prestige  of  Samuel  Adams,  though  nothing  could 
have  been  better  designed  to  that  end,  that  Lord 
North,  rising  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  April 
17,  1773,  offered  a  resolution  permitting  the  East 
India  Company  to  export  teas  stored  in  its  English 
warehouses  free  of  all  duties  save  the  3c/.  tax  in 
America.  Many  years  later  the  Whig  pamphleteer 
Almon  asserted  that  the  measure  was  inspired  by 
the  king's  desire  to  "  try  the  question  with  America." 
The  statement  is  unsupported  by  contemporary  evi 
dence.  Lord  North  said  that  the  measure  was  in 
tended  solely  in  the  interest  of  the  Company,  which 
had  in  fact  but  just  been  rescued  from  bankruptcy 
by  the  interposition  of  the  Government,  and  the 


232  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

resolution  was  passed  into  law  without  comment  and 
without  opposition.  Information  obtained  from  reli 
able  American  merchants  determined  the  directors 
to  take  advantage  of  the  opportunity  thus  offered. 
They  were  assured  that,  although  there  was  strong 
opposition  to  the  3d.  tax,  "  mankind  are  in  general 
governed  by  interest,"  and  "  the  Company  can  afford 
their  teas  cheaper  than  the  Americans  can  smuggle 
them  from  foreigners,  which  puts  the  success  of  the 
design  beyond  a  doubt."  Acting  upon  this  assurance, 
cargoes  of  assorted  teas  amounting  to  2051  chests 
were  sent  to  the  four  ports  of  Boston,  New  York, 
Philadelphia,  and  Charleston. 

But  the  American  merchants  who  advised  this 
step  had  fatally  misjudged  the  situation.  The  ap 
proach  of  the  tea-ships  was  the  signal  for  instant  and 
general  opposition.  Smugglers  opposed  the  East  In 
dia  Company  venture  because  it  threatened  to  de 
stroy  the  very  lucrative  Holland  trade;  the  fair 
trader  because  it  conferred  a  monopoly  upon  an 
English  corporation,  but  above  all  because,  if  the 
Company  could  sell  its  tea,  the  non-importation 
agreement,  that  favorite  conservative  method  of  ob 
taining  redress,  at  once  effective  and  legal,  would 
have  proved  after  all  a  useless  measure.  Unless  they 
were  ready  for  decisive  action,  the  long  struggle 
against  Parliamentary  taxation  must  end  in  submis 
sion.  Many  conservatives  were  content  to  $ry  non- 
consumption  agreements  ;  but  it  was  a  foregone  con 
clusion  that  if  the  tea  was  once  landed,  it  would  be 
sold,  and  a  great  majority  were  in  favor  of  destroy 
ing  it  or  sending  it  back  to  England.  The  latter 


THE  WINNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE    233 

method  was  employed  in  New  York  and  Philadel 
phia  ;  but  in  Boston  Governor  Hutchinson  refused 
to  issue  return  clearance  papers  until  the  cargoes 
were  discharged.  There  the  radicals,  with  the  moral 
support  of  the  great  body  of  conservative  citizens, 
carried  the  day.  On  December  16, 1773,  undisturbed 
by  the  English  ships  of  war,  men  disguised  as  Mo 
hawks,  "no  ordinary  Mohawks,  you  may  depend 
upon  it,"  boarded  the  East  India  Company's  vessels 
and  emptied  its  tea  into  Boston  Harbor. 

Neither  the  Government  nor  the  people  of  Eng 
land  were  now  in  any  mood  for  further  concessions. 
The  average  Briton  had  given  little  thought  to  Amer 
ica  since  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act.  He  easily  re 
called  that  three  years  before  the  ministers  had  good- 
naturedly  withdrawn  the  major  part  of  the  Townshend 
duties,  and  since  then  had  rested  in  the  confident 
belief  that  the  quarrel  was  happily  ended.  The  de 
struction  of  the  tea  seemed  to  him  a  gratuitous  in 
sult,  for  it  passed  his  understanding  that  the  Amer 
icans  should  resent  a  measure  which  enabled  them 
to  buy  their  tea  cheaper  than  he  could  himself ;  and 
he  was,  therefore,  ready  to  back  the  Government  in 
any  measures  it  might  take  for  asserting  the  author 
ity  of  Parliament  over  these  excitable  colonists  whose 
whims  had  too  long  been  seriously  regarded.  This 
task  the  Government,  now  for  the  first  time  effect 
ively  controlled  by  the  king,  was  quite  willing  to 
undertake,  all  the  more  so  on  account  of  the  recent 
burning  of  the  Gaspee  and  the  dishonorable  publica 
tion  of  Hutchinson 's  letters.  By  overwhelming  ma 
jorities  Parliament  accordingly  passed  the  coercive 


234  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

acts,  closing  Boston  Harbor  to  commerce  until  the 
town  made  compensation  to  the  East  India  Company, 
remodeling  the  Massachusetts  charter  in  such  a  man 
ner  as  to  give  to  the  Crown  more  effective  control  of 
the  executive  and  administrative  functions  of  govern 
ment,  making  provision  for  quartering  troops  upon 
the  inhabitants,  and  providing  for  the  trial  in  Eng 
land  of  persons  indicted  for  capital  offenses  commit 
ted  while  aiding  the  magistrates  to  suppress  tumults 
or  insurrection. 

Drastic  as  these  measures  were,  they  were  regarded 
in  England  as  the  necessary  last  resort,  unless  the 
Government,  hitherto  so  indulgent  arid  long-suffering, 
was  prepared  to  ignore  the  most  flagrant  flouting  of 
its  laws  and  to  renounce  all  effective  control  of  the 
colonies.  In  the  colonies,  on  the  other  hand,  they  were 
generally  thought,  even  by  conservative  patriots,  to  be 
clear  evidence  of  a  bold  and  unblushing  design,  unap- 
proved  by  the  majority  of  Englishmen,  no  doubt, 
but  harbored  in  secret  for  many  years  by  the  king's 
hireling  ministers,  to  enslave  America  as  a  prelimi 
nary  step  in  the  destruction  of  English  liberties. 
Firm  in  this  belief,  the  colonists  elected  their  depu 
ties  to  the  First  Continental  Congress,  which  was 
called  to  meet  at  Philadelphia  on  the  1st  of  Septem 
ber,  1774,  in  order  to  unite  upon  the  most  effective 
measures  for  defending  their  common  rights. 

IV 

The  causes  which  had  brought  the  two  countries 
to  this  pass  lie  deeper  than  the  hostile  designs  of 
ministers,  or  the  ambition  of  colonial  agitators  bent 


THE  WINNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE    235 

on  revolution.    It  has  been  said  that  the  Revolution 
was  the  result  of  an  unfortunate  misunderstanding. 
A  misunderstanding   it  was,  sure  enough,  in  one 
sense ;  but  if  by  misunderstanding  is  meant  lack  of 
information  there  is  more  truth  in  the  famous  epi 
gram  which  has  it  that  Grenville  lost  the  colonies 
because  he  read  the  American  dispatches,  which  none 
of  his  predecessors  had  done.    In  the  decade  before 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  every  exchange  of 
ideas  drove  the  two  countries  farther  apart,  and  per 
sonal  contact  alienated  more  often  than  it  reconciled 
the  two  peoples.    It  was  the  years  of  actual  resi 
dence  in  England  that  cooled  Franklin's  love  for 
the  mother  country.    "  Had   I  never  been  in  the 
American  colonies,"  he  writes  in  1772,  "  but  was  to 
form  my  judgement  of  civil  society  from  what  I 
have  lately  seen,  I  should  never  advise  a  nation  of 
savages  to  admit  of  civilization."  Governor  Hutch- 
inson,  one  of  the  most  aristocratic  and  most  English 
of  Americans,  was  amazed  to  find  himself  but  an 
alien  in  a  far  country  during  the  years  of  exile  which 
gave  him  his  first  sight  of  English  society  since  1742. 
Cultivated  man  of  the  world  as  he  thought  himself, 
but  Puritan  still,  it  was  with  a  profound  sense  of  dis 
illusionment  that  he  mingled  with  the  "  best  people  " 
of  England.   How  pathetic  are  those  London  letters 
of  this  unhappy  exile  who  likes  the  people  of  Bristol 
best  because  they  remind  him  of  Boston  select-men, 
whose  one  desire  is  to  return  home  and  lie  buried 
in  the  land  of  his  fathers !  It  is  not  too  fanciful  to 
think  that  if  Hutchinson  had  lived  earlier  in  Eng 
land   he   might   have   died   a  patriot,  whereas  had 


236  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

Franklin  seen  as  little  of  England  as  his  son  he 
might  have  ended  his  days  as  a  Loyalist.  It  was 
"  Old  England"  indeed  that  these  cultivated  Amer 
icans  loved :  the  England  of  Magna  Carta  and  the 
Petition  of  Eight ;  the  England  of  Drake,  of  Pym 
and  Falkland,  and  of  the  Glorious  Revolution ;  the 
little  island  kingdom  that  harbored  liberty  and  was 
the  builder  of  an  empire  justly  governed :  they 
thought  of  England  in  terms  of  her  history,  scarcely 
aware  that  her  best  traditions  were  more  cherished 
in  the  New  World  than  in  the  Old. 

Rarely,  indeed,  would  an  appeal  to  England's  best 
traditions  have  met  with  less  cordial  response  among 
her  rulers.  For  during  the  decade  following  the 
Peace  of  Paris  the  vision  of  liberty  was  half  ob 
scured  by  the  vision  of  empire.  Observant  contem 
poraries  noted  the  sudden  rise  of  an  insular  egoism 
following  the  war  that  in  Voltaire's  phrase  saw 
"  England  victorious  in  four  parts  of  the  world." 
Cowper  was  not  alone  in  complaining  "  that  thieves 
at  home  must  hang,  but  he  that  puts  into  his  over- 
gorged  and  bloated  purse  the  wealth  of  Indian  prov 
inces,  escapes  " ;  and  Horace  Walpole  has  recorded 
in  his  incomparable  letters,  with  a  cynical  and  an 
engaging  wit  which  reflects  the  spirit  of  the  times 
better  than  his  own  sentiments,  the  corruption  and 
prodigality,  the  levity  and  low  aims  of  that  genera 
tion.  With  many  noble  exceptions,  the  men  who 
gathered  round  the  young  king,  the  men  who  "  lived 
on  their  country  or  died  for  her,"  who  too  often  ad 
mired  if  they  could  not  always  emulate  the  brutal 
degradation  of  a  Sandwich  or  the  matchless  abandon 


THE  WINNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE    237 

of  the  young  Charles  James  Fox,  had  singularly  lit 
tle  in  common  with  those  American  communities 
which  the  Frenchman  Segur  fancied  "might  have 
been  made  to  order  out  of  the  imagination  of  Kous- 
seau  or  Fenelon." 

Had  they  known  them  better  they  would  have 
liked  them  less ;  and  in  fact  ten  years'  "  discussion 
of  the  points  in  controversy  only  served  to  put  far 
ther  asunder "  men  who  reasoned  from  different 
premises  and  in  a  different  temper.  Englishmen 
were  generally  content  with  the  fact  of  power  regis 
tered  in  legal  precedents  ;  but  Americans,  profoundly 
convinced  that  they  deserved  to  be  free,  were  ever 
concerned  with  its  moral  justification.  "  To  what 
purpose  is  it  to  ring  everlasting  changes  ...  on  the 
cases  of  Manchester  and  .  .  .  Sheffield,"  cried  James 
Otis.  "  If  these  places  are  not  represented,  they 
ought  to  be."  This  ought  is  the  fundamental  prem 
ise  of  the  entire  colonial  argument.  "  Shall  we  Pro 
teus-like  perpetually  change  our  ground,  assume 
every  moment  some  new  strange  shape,  to  defend, 
to  evade  ?  "  asks  a  Virginian  in  1774.  This  was  pre 
cisely  what  could  not  be  avoided.  For  the  end  de 
termined  the  means.  If,  therefore,  the  distinction 
between  external  and  internal  taxes  was  untenable, 
it  convinced  the  American,  not  that  Parliament  had 
a  right  to  tax  the  colonies,  but  only  that  it  had  no 
right  to  legislate  for  them.  And  when  Englishmen 
grounded  the  legislative  rights  of  Parliament  upon 
the  solid  basis  of  positive  law,  the  colonial  patriot 
appealed  with  solemn  fervor  to  natural  law  and  the 
abstract  rights  of  man.  Little  wonder  that  the  more 


238  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

logical  the  American  argument  became  the  less  in 
telligible  it  appeared  to  most  Englishmen,  and  what 
seemed  at  last  the  very  axioms  of  politics  to  the  colo 
nial  radical  struck  the  conservative  British  mind  as 
the  sophistry  of  men  bent  on  revolution. 

If  ten  years'  discussion  convinced  American  patri 
ots  that  they  possessed  more  rights  than  their  philo 
sophy  had  yet  dreamed  of,  constant  dwelling  on  their 
condition  developed  a  sensitiveness  which  registered 
oppression  where  none  had  been  felt  before.  What 
a  profound  influence  had  those  liberty-pole  festivals 
so  assiduously  promoted  by  men  like  Samuel  Adams 
and  Alexander  MacDougall :  "  for  they  tinge  the 
minds  of  the  people  ;  they  impregnate  them  with  the 
sentiments  of  liberty ;  they  render  the  people  fond 
of  their  leaders  in  the  cause,  and  averse  and  bitter 
against  all  opposers."  In  August,  1769,  John  Adams 
dined  with  three  hundred  and  fifty  Sons  of  Liberty 
at  Dorchester,  in  an  open  field.  "  This,"  he  said,  not 
ing  the  effect  of  the  patriotic  toasts  and  the  inspiring 
popular  songs,  "  is  cultivating  the  sensations  of  free 
dom."  For  a  decade  these  excitable  Americans  did, 
indeed,  cultivate  the  sensations  of  freedom  ;  went  out 
periodically,  as  it  were,  to  "  snuff  the  approach  of  tyr 
anny  on  every  tainted  breeze  "  ;  a  practice  which,  be 
coming  habitual,  developed  a  peculiar  type  of  mind 
which  marked  a  man  out  from  his  fellows.  Such  a 
man  was  William  Hall,  Esquire,  of  North  Carolina, 
at  whose  house  Josiah  Quincy  stopped ;  "  a  most  sen 
sible,  polite  gentleman,  and,  although  a  Crown  officer, 
a  man  replete  with  the  sentiments  of  general  liberty." 
How  useless,  indeed,  were  arguments  drawn  from  posi- 


THE  WINNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE    239 

tive  law,  or  the  citation  of  many  legal  precedents,  to 
convince  men  replete  with  sentiments  of  general 
liberty  ! 

And  those  who  so  assiduously  cultivated  the  sen 
sations  of  freedom  could  not  easily  deny  themselves 
the  martyr's  crown.  Like  the  Girondins  in  France  at 
a  later  day,  many  American  patriots,  such  as  Josiah 
Quincy  himself  and  Richard  Henry  Lee,  have  some 
what  the  air  of  loving  liberty  because  they  had  read 
the  classics.  They  liked  to  think  of  themselves  as 
exhibiting  "  a  resolution  which  would  not  have  dis 
graced  the  Romans  in  their  best  days  " ;  and  seem 
almost  to  welcome  persecution  in  order  to  prove  that 
the  spirit  of  Regulus  still  lived.  It  was  no  mere  dis 
pute  in  the  practical  art  of  politics  that  engaged 
them,  but  a  cosmic  conflict  between  the  uncondi 
tioned  good  and  the  powers  of  darkness.  "  It  is  im 
possible  that  vice  can  so  triumph  over  virtue,"  writes 
Lee  in  all  soberness,  "  as  that  the  slaves  of  Tyranny 
should  succeed  against  the  brave  and  generous  assert- 
ers  of  Liberty  and  the  just  rights  of  Humanity." 
Even  the  common  people,  said  Joseph  Warren,  "  take 
an  honest  pride  in  being  singled  out  by  a  tyrannous 
administration."  Knowing  that  "  their  merits,  not 
their  crimes,  make  them  the  objects  of  Ministerial 
vengeance,"  they  refused  to  pay  a  penny  tax  with  the 
religious  fervor  of  men  doing  battle  for  the  welfare 
of  the  human  race.  Consider  the  dry  common  sense 
with  which  Dr.  Johnson  disposed  of  the  alleged  Tyr 
anny  of  Great  Britain :  "  But  I  say,  if  the  rascals 
are  so  prosperous,  oppression  has  agreed  with  them, 
or  there  has  been  no  oppression  "  ;  and  contrast  it  with 


240  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

the  reverent  spirit  which  pervades  the  writings  of 
John  Dickinson  or  the  formal  protests  of  the  Con 
tinental  Congress.  Reconciliation  was  indeed  diffi 
cult  between  men  who  could  treat  the  matter  lightly, 
in  the  manner  of  Soame  Jenyns,  and  men  who,  with 
John  Adams,  thought  themselves  one  company  with 
that  "  mighty  line  of  heroes  and  confessors  and  mar 
tyrs  who  since  the  beginning  of  history  have  done 
battle  for  the  dignity  and  happiness  of  human  nature 
against  the  leagued  assailants  of  both.'' 

This  lyric  enthusiasm  for  liberty,  and  the  radical 
political  theories  which  were  its  most  formal  expres 
sion,  were  all  the  more  incomprehensible  to  the  aver 
age  Briton  inasmuch  as  they  were  the  result  of  a 
conflict  of  interests  in  America  quite  as  much  as  of 
English  legislation.  "  The  decree  has  gone  forth," 
said  John  Adams,  "  that  a  more  equal  liberty  than 
has  prevailed  in  other  parts  of  the  earth,  must  be 
established  in  America."  Not  for  home  rule  alone 
was  the  Revolution  fought,  but  for  the  democratiza 
tion  of  American  society  as  well.  The  quarrel  with 
Great  Britain  would  hardly  have  ended  in  war,  had 
the  landed  and  commercial  interests,  those  little  aris 
tocracies  which  had  hitherto  controlled  colonial  poli 
tics,  been  free  to  conduct  it  in  their  own  fashion.  At 
every  stage  in  the  controversy,  the  most  uncompro 
mising  opponents  of  Parliamentary  taxation  were 
those  who  felt  themselves  inadequately  represented 
in  colonial  assemblies.  Fear  of  British  tyranny  was 
most  felt  by  those  who  had  little  influence  in  shaping 
colonial  laws.  And  half  the  bitter  denunciation  of 
corruption  in  England  was  inspired  by  jealous  dis- 


THE  WINNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE    241 

like  of  those  high-placed  families  in  America  whose 
ostentatious  lives  and  condescending  manners  were  an 
offense  to  the  laborious  poor,  or  to  men  of  talent  am 
bitious  to  rise  from  obscurity  to  influence  and  power. 
What  Heaven-sent  opportunity,  then,  was  this 
quarrel  with  Britain  for  all  those  who  resented  the 
genial  complacence  with  which  fortune's  favorites, 
"  with  vanity  enough  to  call  themselves  the  better 
sort,"  monopolized  privilege  in  nearly  every  colony ! 
The  Virginia  Stamp  Act  Resolutions,  which  according 
to  Governor  Bernard  of  Massachusetts  sounded  "  an 
alarum  bell  to  the  disaffected,"  would  assuredly  never 
have  been  passed  by  the  Pendletons  or  the  Blands, 
nor  yet  by  Peyton  Randolph,  who  swore  with  an  oath 
that  he  would  have  given  £500  for  a  single  vote  to 
defeat  them.  They  were  carried  by  the  western  coun 
ties  under  the  leadership  of  Patrick  Henry,  recently 
elected  from  the  back  country  to  sit  in  sober  home 
spun  garb  with  the  modish  aristocrats  of  the  tide 
water.  Product  of  the  small  farmer  democracy  be 
yond  the  "  Fall  Line,"  uniting  the  implacable  temper 
of  the  Calvinist  with  the  humanitarian  sentiments  of 
the  eighteenth-century  philosophe,  he  joined  hands 
with  Jefferson  and  the  Lees  to  form  the  radical 
party.  It  was  this  party  which  carried  Virginia  into 
rebellion  against  England.  And  it  was  this  party 
which  destroyed  the  domination  of  the  little  coterie 
of  great  planters  by  abolishing  entail,  disestablishing 
the  Anglican  Church,  and  proclaiming  a  state  con 
stitution  founded,  in  theory  if  not  altogether  in  fact, 
upon  the  principles  of  liberty  and  equality  and  the 
rights  of  man. 


242  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

From  the  point  of  view  of  most  cultivated  and 
conservative  Americans,  admirable  indeed  were  the 
restrained  and  conciliatory  arguments  of  John  Dick 
inson  in  support  of  the  right  of  the  colonies  to  be 
taxed  only  by  their  own  representatives.  But  how 
vulnerable  was  his  position  in  defending  the  existing 
government  in  Pennsylvania,  by  which  the  three 
Quaker  counties,  with  less  than  half  the  population 
of  the  province,  elected  twenty-four  of  the  thirty- 
six  deputies  in  the  assembly !  "  We  apprehend,"  so 
runs  a  petition  from  the  German  and  Scotch-Irish 
counties  of  the  interior,  "  that  as  freemen  and  Eng 
lish  subjects,  we  have  an  indisputable  title  to  the 
same  privileges  and  immunities  with  his  Majesty's 
other  subjects  who  reside  in  the  counties  of  Phila 
delphia,  Chester,  and  Bucks."  German  Protestants 
and  Scotch-Irish  Presbyterians,  resenting  Quaker 
domination  more  than  they  feared  British  tyranny, 
and  the  mechanics  and  artisans  and  small  shop 
keepers  of  Philadelphia,  unwilling  "  to  give  up 
our  liberties  for  the  sake  of  a  few  smiles  once  a 
year,"  made  the  strength  of  the  radical  and  revolu 
tionary  party  in  Pennsylvania.  Opposed  to  all  at 
tempts  to  infringe  their  rights  "  either  here  or  on 
the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,"  they  at  last  gained 
control  of  the  anti-British  movement,  and  made  use 
of  it,  employing  the  very  arguments  which  Dickin 
son  and  his  kind  had  used  in  resistance  to  British 
oppression,  in  an  attempt  to  overthrow  the  Quaker- 
merchant  oligarchy  that  had  so  long  governed  the 
colony  in  its  own  interests. 

One  day  in  1772  old  Governor  Shirley,  then  liv- 


THE  WINNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE    243 

ing  in  retirement,  heard  that  the  "  Boston  Seat "  was 
responsible  for  the  opposition  to  Hutehinson's  ad 
ministration.  When  they  told  him  who  it  was  that 
made  the  Boston  Seat,  he  is  said  to  have  replied : 
"  Mr.  Gushing  I  knew,  and  Mr.  Hancock  I  knew, 
but  where  the  devil  this  brace  of  Adamses  came 
from  I  know  not."  He  might  have  been  told  that 
they  had  risen  from  obscurity  to  inject  into  politics 
the  acrid  and  self-righteous  spirit  of  their  Puritan 
ancestors.  It  would  be  interesting  to  inquire  to  what 
issue  the  quarrel  with  England  would  have  been 
conducted  had  it  been  left  to  Mr.  Gushing  and  Mr. 
Hancock.  Half  the  persistent  opposition  of  the  brace 
of  Adamses  to  British  legislation  was  inspired  by 
the  commanding  position  of  a  few  families  in  Bos 
ton  —  the  Hutchinsons  and  Olivers,  who  "  will  rule 
and  overbear  in  all  things."  As  a  youngster  John 
Adams  had  confided  to  his  Diary :  "  I  will  not  .  .  . 
confine  myself  to  a  chamber  for  nothing.  I  '11  have 
some  boon  in  return,  exchange:  fame,  fortune,  or 
something."  Laborious  days  had  gained  him  little. 
"  Thirty  seven  years,  more  than  half  the  life  of  man, 
are  run  out,"  he  complains  in  1773,  "  and  I  have 
my  own  and  my  children's  fortunes  to  make."  Yet 
there  was  his  boyhood  friend,  Jonathan  Sewall,  al 
ready  attorney-general,  "  rewarded  .  .  .  with  six 
thousand  pounds  a  year,  for  propagating  as  many 
.  .  .  slanders  against  his  country  as  ever  fell  from 
the  pen  of  a  sycophant."  And  the  Hutchinsons  and 
Olivers !  With  what  concentrated  bitterness  does 
the  young  lawyer  write  of  these  men  who,  he  is  con 
vinced,  had  submitted  to  be  ministerial  tools  for 


244  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

the  aggrandizement  of  their  families.  His  bitter 
ness  is  the  greater,  and  his  conscious  rectitude  the 
more  obtrusive,  because  he  also,  the  virtuous  Adams, 
might  have  sat  in  that  gallery.  For  the  wily  Hutch- 
inson  had  offered  him  the  lucrative  post  of  solicitor- 
general  —  the  open  road  to  power ;  but  he  had  de 
clined  it ;  he  could  not  be  bought  by  the  man  "  whose 
character  and  conduct  have  been  the  cause  for  laying 
a  foundation  for  perpetual  discontent  and  uneasi 
ness  between  Britain  and  the  colonies,  of  perpetual 
struggle  of  one  party  for  wealth  and  power  at  the 
expense  of  the  liberties  of  this  country,  and  of  per 
petual  contention  in  the  other  party  to  preserve 
them."  Not  in  England  was  the  plot  hatched,  but 
in  Boston  itself ;  and  much  brooding  on  his  injuries 
and  his  abnegations  had  brought  Adams  to  the  pass, 
in  1774,  that  he  could  set  down  the  names  of  the 
three  "  original  conspirators." 

It  was  this  opposition  of  interests  in  America  that 
chiefly  made  men  extremists  on  either  side.  Adams 
would  have  been  less  radical  had  Hutchinson  and 
Jonathan  Sewall  been  more  so;  and  perhaps  Hutchin 
son  and  Sewall  might  have  been  more  loyal  patriots 
had  the  brace  of  Adamses  been  less  bitter  ones.  Most 
of  those  who  in  the  end  became  Loyalists  were  men 
who  had  once  been  opposed  to  the  ministerial  policy, 
and  many  remained  so  to  the  end  of  their  lives.  But 
with  every  stage  in  the  conflict  they  looked  with  in 
creasing  apprehension  upon  the  growing  influence 
of  obscure  leaders  who  proclaimed  the  rights  of  the 
people.  The  prevalence  of  mobs  ;  the  entrance  of  the 
unfranchised  populace,  by  means  of  "body"  meet- 


THE  WINNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE    245 

ings  and  mass  meetings,  into  the  political  arena ;  the 
leveling  principles  and  the  smug  self-righteousness  of 
the  patriot  politicians  ;  —  all  this  led  many  a  conser 
vative  to  consider  whether  his  interest  were  not  more 
threatened  by  the  insurgence  of  radicalism  in  Amer 
ica  than  by  the  alleged  oppression  of  British  legisla 
tion.  Boston  is  indeed  mad,  Hutehinson  writes  in 
1770.  The  frenzy,  kept  up  by  utwo  or  three  of  the 
most  abandoned  atheist  fellows  in  the  world,  united 
with  as  many  precise  enthusiast  deacons,  who  head, 
the  rabble  in  all  their  meetings,"  was  not  higher 
"  when  they  banished  my  pious  great-grandmother, 
when  they  hanged  the  Quakers."  People  of  "the 
best  character  and  estate  .  .  .  decline  attending 
Town  Meetings  where  they  are  sure  to  be  outvoted 
by  men  of  the  lowest  orders."  And  even  in  Phil 
adelphia,  where,  according  to  Joseph  Reed,  "  there 
have  been  no  mobs,  the  frequent  appeals  to  the  peo 
ple  must  in  time  occasion  a  change."  "We  are  has 
tening  on  to  desperate  resolutions,"  he  assured  Dart 
mouth,  and  "  our  most  wise  and  sensible  citizens 
dread  the  anarchy  and  confusion  that  must  ensue." 
They  were,  indeed,  hastening  on  to  desperate  reso 
lutions  on  that  5th  of  September  when  men  from 
twelve  colonies  assembled  in  Carpenter's  Hall  to  form 
the  First  Continental  Congress.  A  body  of  able  men, 
it  represented  the  division  as  well  as  the  unity  that 
prevailed  in  America ;  for  there  Galloway  and  Isaac 
Low,  soon  to  become  Loyalists,  sat  with  Patrick 
Henry  and  Samuel  Adams,  ready  to  welcome  inde 
pendence  ;  of  one  opinion  that  American  rights  were 
threatened,  irreconcilably  opposed  in  their  methods 


246  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

of  defending  them.  John  Adams,  traveling  by  easy 
stages  to  Philadelphia,  had  noted  with  some  surprise 
how  greatly  the  Middle  colonies  feared  "  the  levelling 
spirit  of  New  England  " ;  and  he  now  found  in  the 
Congress  many  men  who  would  hear  "  no  expression 
which  looked  like  an  allusion  to  the  last  appeal " ; 
men  who  were  quite  content  to  confine  the  action  of 
Congress  to  protest  and  negotiation,  deeming  a  non- 
intercourse  measure  useless  if  voluntary  and  revolu 
tionary  if  maintained  by  force.  For  two  weeks  the 
advantage  seemed  to  lie  with  these  men  ;  but  on 
September  17,  when  the  famous  "Suffolk  Resolu 
tions  "  were  laid  before  Congress,  many  conserva 
tives,  unwilling  to  abandon  a  neighboring  colony  how 
ever  much  they  might  regret  the  step  it  had  taken, 
voted  with  the  radicals  of  New  England  and  Virginia 
to  approve  the  act  which  virtually  put  Massachusetts 
in  a  state  of  rebellion.  The  final  stand  of  the  con 
servatives  was  made  eleven  days  later  when  Galloway 
introduced  his  Plan  for  a  British  American  Pa"rlia- 
ment,  a  serious  and  practicable  plan  according  to  'Lord 
Dartmouth,  "  almost  a  perfect  plan,"  thought  -John 
Rutledge,  of  South  Carolina,  for  effecting  >a  perma 
nent  reconciliation.  But  the  motion,  'upon  which 
"  warm  and  long  debates  ensued,"  was  finally  rejected 
by  a  majority  of  one  colony,  and  late  in  October  the 
resolution  itself,  and  all  minutes  concerning  it,  were 
expunged  from  the  records  of  Congress. 

After  the  rejection  of  Galloway's  Plan,  conserva 
tives  and  radicals  united  to  formulate  the  non-in 
tercourse  measures,  which  New  England  delegates 
thought  so  essential,  and  those  famous  addresses  — 


THE  WINNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE    247 

to  the  King,  to  the  Inhabitants  of  Great  Britain,  to 
the  Inhabitants  of  the  British  Colonies  —  which  Pitt 
declared  to  be  unsurpassed  for  ability  and  modera 
tion.  Able  and  moderate  the  addresses  undoubtedly 
were  ;  the  work  of  conservative  deputies,  designed  to 
conciliate  conservatives  in  America  and  win  Whig 
support  in  England.  But  the  important  work  of  the 
First  Continental  Congress  was  embodied  in  the 
"Association,"  through  which  Congress  "  recom 
mended"  to  the  colonies  the  adoption  of  non-impor 
tation,  non-consumption,' and  non-exportation  agree 
ments  to  become  effective  December  1, 1774,  March 
1  and  September  10,  1775.  From  previous  experi 
ence  it  was  well  understood  that  such  agreements  as 
these,  far  more  drastic  than  any  which  had  yet  been 
tried,  would  prove  ineffective  if  they  remained  purely 
voluntary  associations  ;  and  what  made  the  non-in 
tercourse  policy  of  the  First  Congress  distasteful  to 
conservative  men  were  the  measures  taken  to  enforce 
it.  To  this  end  it  was  provided  that  there  should  be 
appointed  in  "  every  county,  city,  and  town  "  a  com 
mittee  of  inspection  "  whose  business  it  shall  be  to 
observe  the  conduct  of  all  persons  touching  the  As* 
sociation  " ;  to  publish  the  names  of  all  who  violated 
it ;  to  inspect  the  customs  entries ;  and  to  seize  and 
dispose  of  all  goods  imported  contrary  to  its  provi 
sions.  Thus  was  a  voluntary  agreement  not  to  do  cer 
tain  things  transformed  into  a  kind  of  general  law  to 
be  enforced  upon  all  alike  by  boycott  and  confiscation 
of  property. 

The  Association  of  the  First  Congress  created  a 
revolutionary  government  and  gave  birth  to  the  Loy- 


248  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

alist  as  distinct  from  the  conservative  party.  Kadi- 
cals  and  conservatives  had  differed  in  respect  to  the 
theoretical  basis  of  colonial  rights  and  the  most  effec 
tive  methods  of  securing  redress.  But  the  authority 
now  assumed  in  the  name  of  Congress  raised  the  ulti 
mate  question  of  allegiance.  Of  the  pamphleteers  and 
preachers  who  now  denounced  the  Association  as  a 
revolutionary  measure,  Samuel  Seabury  perceived  the 
issue  most  clearly  and  stated  it  most  effectively :  "  If 
I  must  be  enslaved,  let  it  be  by  a  King  at  least,  and 
not  by  a  parcel  of  upstart,  lawless  committeemen." 
Whether  to  submit  to  the  king  or  to  the  committee 
— this  was,  indeed,  the  fundamental  question  during 
those  crucial  months  from  November,  1774,  to  July, 
1776.  For  extremists  on  either  side,  the  question 
presented  no  difficulty ;  for  conservatives  like  Hutch- 
inson,  who  had  long  since  lost  all  sympathy  with  pre 
vailing  measures  of  resistance,  or  for  radicals  like 
Samuel  Adams  and  Patrick  Henry,  who  pressed  eag 
erly  forward  toward  independence.  But  in  1774  the 
great  majority  of  thinking  men,  abhorring  the  notion 
of  war  or  separation  from  England,  were  yet  con 
vinced  that  strong  protest,  and  even  a  kind  of  for 
cible  resistance,  was  justified  in  order  to  maintain 
their  just  rights.  These  men  sooner  or  later  found 
themselves  "between  Scylla  and  Charybdis'' :  com 
pelled  to  choose  what  was  for  them  the  lesser  evil ; 
to  acknowledge  the  authority  of  Parliament  in  spite 
of  laws  which  they  regarded  as  oppressive  and  uncon 
stitutional,  or  to  identify  themselves  with  the  cause  of 
Congress  however  ill-advised  they  may  have  thought 
its  action.  Those  men  who  wished  to  take  a  safe  mid- 


THE  WINNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE    249 

die  ground,  who  wished  neither  to  renounce  their 
country  nor  to  mark  themselves  as  rebels,  could  no 
longer  hold  together,  and  the  conservative  party  dis 
appeared  :  perhaps  one  half  chose  sooner  or  later  to 
submit  to  British  authority ;  the  other  half,  either 
with  deliberation  or  yielding  insensibly  to  the  pres 
sure  of  events,  went  with  their  country. 

That  a  majority  of  conservatives  refused  to  meet 
this  issue  until  after  the  battle  of  Lexington,  and  many 
not  until  the  Declaration  of  Independence  "  closed  the 
last  door  of  reconciliation,"  was  largely  due  to  the 
widespread  belief  that  if  the  colonies  took  a  bold 
stand  the  English  Government  would  once  more  back 
down.  Upon  the  conduct  of  radicals  and  conservatives 
alike,  this  persistent  belief,  one  of  those  delusions 
which  often  change  the  course  of  history,  exercised, 
indeed,  a  decisive  influence.  Even  as  high  a  Son  of 
Liberty  as  Richard  Henry  Lee  would  have  favored 
more  cautious  measures  in  the  First  Congress  had  he 
not  been  certain  that  "  the  same  ship  which  carries 
home  the  resolutions  will  bring  back  the  redress." 
Inspired  among  radicals  partly  by  the  feeling  that  so 
just  a  cause  could  not  fail,  the  conviction  was  chiefly 
grounded  upon  information  sent  home  by  Americans 
residing  in  England.  If  Congress  is  unanimous,  wrote 
Franklin  in  September,  1774,  "you  cannot  fail  of 
carrying  your  point.  If  you  divide  you  are  lost." 
Josiah  Quincy,  sent  to  England  in  order  to  get  first 
hand  information,  wrote  letter  after  letter  to  men  in 
every  part  of  America,  assuring  them  that  the  oppres 
sion  of  the  colonies  was  an  affair  of  corrupt  minis 
ters  who  were  not  supported  by  one  in  twenty  of  the 


250  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

inhabitants  of  Great  Britain.  "  Corruption  and  the 
influence  of  the  Crown  hath  led  us  into  bondage,"  is 
the  common  cry  here.  "  To  Americans  only  we  look 
for  salvation."  But  yesterday  a  noble  lord  had  as 
sured  him  that,  "  this  country  will  never  carry  on  a 
civil  war  against  America ;  we  cannot,  but  the  min 
istry  hope  to  carry  all  by  a  single  stroke."  Certainly, 
he  assured  his  friends,  the  common  opinion  here  is 
that  "  if  the  Americans  stand  out,  we  must  come  to 
their  terms." 

Above  all,  therefore,  America  must  stand  out ;  she 
must  be  "  firm  and  united,"  waiting  the  day  when 
England  would  come  to  her  terms.  But  the  difficulty 
was  to  be  firm  and  at  the  same  time  united ;  for  with 
every  measure  bolder  than  the  last,  conservative  men 
grew  timid  or  deserted  the  cause  to  swell  the  ranks 
of  the  Loyalist  party.  It  was  precisely  to  preserve 
the  appearance  of  unity  where  none  existed  that  the 
journals  of  the  First  Congress  had  been  falsified ;  for 
this  reason  alone  many  conservatives  had  voted  for 
the  Association  ;  and  in  the  year  1775,  after  the  bat 
tle  of  Lexington  had  precipitated  a  state  of  war, 
radical  members  of  the  Second  Congress  voted  for 
conciliatory  petitions,  and  conservatives  voted  to  take 
up  arms  against  the  British  troops,  in  the  hope  that 
if  the  colonists  showed  themselves  unanimous  in  the 
profession  of  loyalty,  and  at  the  same  time  unani 
mous  in  their  determination  to  resort  to  forcible 
resistance  as  a  last  resort,  the  English  Government 
would  never  press  the  matter  to  a  conclusion. 

In  February,  1775,  Lord  North  had,  indeed, 
offered  resolutions  of  conciliation.  The  measure 


THE  WINNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE    251 

amazed  his  own  followers  and  was  greeted  by  the 
Whigs  with  Homeric  laughter.  Offers  of  concilia 
tion  could  scarcely  have  arrived  in  America  at  a 
more  inopportune  time,  —  the  very  moment  almost 
when  the  battle  of  Lexington  came  like  an  alarm- 
bell  in  the  night  to  waken  men  from  the  dream  of 
peace.  And  the  resolutions  themselves  had  all  the 
appearance  of  being  a  clever  ruse  designed  to  sepa 
rate  the  Middle  colonies  from  New  England  and 
Virginia,  in  order  to  destroy  that  very  union  which 
Americans  believed  to  be  the  best  hope  of  obtaining 
real  concession.  Such  the  Whigs  in  England  asserted 
them  to  be ;  and  generally  so  regarded  in  America, 
they  were  everywhere  rejected  with  contempt.  In 
November,  after  the  non-exportation  agreement  be 
came  effective,  when  an  American  army  was  endeav 
oring  to  drive  the  British  troops  out  of  Boston,  Lord 
North  declared  in  Parliament  that  whereas  former 
measures  were  intended  as  "  civil  corrections  against 
civil  crimes,"  the  time  was  now  come  for  prosecuting 
war  against  America  as  against  any  foreign  enemy ; 
and  with  the  opening  of  the  new  year  it  was  at  last 
becoming  clear,  even  to  the  most  optimistic,  that  the 
English  Government  was  prepared  to  exact  submis 
sion  at  the  point  of  the  sword. 

As  the  vain  hope  of  conciliation  died  away,  the 
radicals,  under  the  able  lead  of  John  Adams  and 
Richard  Henry  Lee,  pushed  on  to  a  formal  declara 
tion  of  independence.  This  was  now,  indeed,  the 
only  way  out  for  them.  The  non-intercourse  policy, 
injuring  America  more  than  it  injured  England,  had 
proved  a  hopeless  failure.  During  the  year  1775 


THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

imports  feU  from  £2,000,000  to  £213,000  ;  and  after 
the  non-exportation  agreement  became  effective,  busi 
ness  stagnation  produced  profound  discontent  and 
diminished  the  resources  necessary  for  carrying  on 
war.  So  drastic  a  self-denying  ordinance  could  not  be 
maintained,  for  "  people  will  feel,  and  will  say,  that 
Congress  oppresses  them  more  than  Parliament." 
Unable  "  to  do  without  trade,''  they  were  "  between 
Hawk  and  Buzzard  "  ;  and  on  April  6, 1776,  the  ports 
of  America  were  opened  to  the  world.  "  But  no  state 
will  treat  or  trade  with  us,"  said  Lee,  "  so  long  as 
we  consider  ourselves  subjects  of  Great  Britain."  A 
declaration  of  independence  was  therefore  recognized, 
gladly  by  some,  with  profound  regret  by  many  more, 
as  the  only  alternative  to  submission ;  for  it  alone 
would  make  possible  that  military  and  commercial 
alliance  with  France  without  which  America  could 
not  successfully  withstand  the  superior  power  of 
Great  Britain ;  and  at  the  same  time  it  would  enable 
the  de  facto  colonial  Governments,  with  a  show  of 
legality,  to  suppress  the  disaffected  Loyalists  and 
confiscate  their  property  to  the  uses  of  the  cause 
which  they  had  so  basely  betrayed. 

On  June  7,  1776,  Ki chard  Henry  Lee,  in  behalf 
of  the  Virginia  delegation  and  in  obedience  to  instruc 
tions  from  the  Virginia  Assembly,  accordingly  moved 
"  that  these  united  colonies  are,  and  of  right  ought 
to  be  free  and  independent  states ;  .  .  .  that  it  is 
expedient  forthwith  to  take  the  most  effectual  meas 
ures  for  forming  foreign  alliances  "  ;  and  "  that  a 
plan  of  confederation  be  prepared  and  transmitted 
to  the  respective  colonies  for  their  consideration." 


THE   WINNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE     253 

Debated  at  length,  the  final  decision,  already  a  fore 
gone  conclusion,  was  deferred  in  deference  to  the 
wishes  of  the  conservative  Middle  colonies.  It  was 
on  July  2  that  the  momentous  resolutions  were  finally 
carried  ;  and  two  days  later  the  Congress  published  to 
the  world  that  famous  declaration  which  derived  the 
authority  of  just  governments  from  the  consent  of 
the  governed,  and  grounded  civil  society  upon  the 
inherent  and  inalienable  rights  of  man.  In  the  his 
tory  of  the  Western  world,  the  American  Declara 
tion  of  Independence  was  an  event  of  outstanding 
importance  :  glittering  or  not,  its  sweeping  general 
ities  formulated  those  basic  truths  which  no  criticism 
can  seriously  impair,  and  to  which  the  minds  of  men 
must  always  turn,  so  long  as  faith  in  democracy 
shall  endure. 


The  men  who  with  resolution  and  high  hope 
pledged  their  lives,  their  fortunes,  and  their  sacred 
honor  to  the  defense  of  these  novel  principles,  could 
scarcely  have  foreseen  the  emotional  reaction  that 
was  soon  to  follow ;  the  profound  disillusionment  of 
those  weary  years  when  only  an  occasional  victory 
came  to  lift  the  despondency  occasioned  by  constant 
defeat :  years  when  "  the  spirit  of  the  people  begins 
to  flag,  or  the  approach  of  danger  dispirits  them  "  ; 
when  "  few  of  the  numbers  who  talked  so  largely 
of  death  and  honor  "  were  to  be  found  on  the  field  of 
battle  ;  when  a  febrile  enthusiasm  for  liberty  and  the 
just  rights  of  humanity  seemed  strangely  transformed 
into  the  sordid  spirit  of  the  money-changer  ;  those 


254  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

years  of  the  drawn-out  war  when  drudgery  in  obscure 
committee  rooms  was  valued  above  declamation  and 
the  practical  sense  of  Robert  Morris  counted  for 
more  than  the  finished  oratory  of  Richard  Henry 
Lee;  the  times  that  tried  men's  souls,  when  "the 
summer  soldier  and  the  sunshine  patriot  .  .  .  shrinks 
from  the  service  of  his  country,  but  he  that  stands 
.  .  .  deserves  the  love  of  man  and  woman."  Happily 
for  America  there  were  many  who  kept  the  faith, 
who  fought  the  good  fight,  during  these  dark  days. 
Yet  one  is  apt  to  think  that  the  Declaration  must 
have  proved  a  vain  boast  of  rebels  but  for  that  Vir 
ginia  colonel  whom  the  Congress  appointed,  on  June 
17,  1775,  to  be  "  General  and  Commander  in  Chief 
of  the  armies  of  the  United  Colonies  " ;  that  man  so 
modest  that  he  thought  himself  incompetent  for  the 
task,  yet  of  such  heroic  resolution  that  neither  dif 
ficulties  nor  reverses  nor  betrayals  could  bring  him 
to  despair;  that  man  of  rectitude,  whose  will  was 
steeled  to  finer  temper  by  every  defeat,  and  who  was 
not  to  be  turned,  by  any  failure  or  success,  by  any 
calumny,  by  gold,  or  by  the  dream  of  empire,  from 
the  straight  path  of  his  purpose. 

He  had  come,  in  June,  1776,  fresh  from  the  no 
table  achievement  which  drove  the  British  army  out 
of  Boston,  to  defend  New  York  against  the  most 
formidable  military  and  naval  force  ever  seen  in 
America.  With  a  rashness  born  of  inexperience  or 
the  necessity  of  making  a  stand,  Washington  car 
ried  his  undisciplined  farmers  and  frontier  riflemen 
across  to  Brooklyn  Heights  on  Long  Island,  to  meet 
inevitable  defeat  at  the  hands  of  General  Howe.  A 


THE  WINNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE    255 

ship  or  two,  which  the  slow-moving  British  com 
mander  might  have  sent  up  the  East  River,  would 
have  prevented  the  masterly  retreat  which  saved  the 
American  army  from  capture.  But  Howe  seemed 
bent  only  upon  occupying  New  York,  which  thus 
became,  and  until  the  end  of  the  war  remained,  the 
British  and  Loyalist  headquarters.  With  a  delibera 
tion  that  enraged  the  Loyalist  and  non-plussed  his 
subordinates,  the  general  pushed  the  patriot  army 
northward  to  White  Plains,  missing  there  a  second 
opportunity  to  win  a  decisive  battle.  But  the  capture 
of  Fort  Washington  on  the  Hudson  opened  the  river 
to  the  British  navy,  and  compelled  the  American 
forces  to  retreat  through  New  Jersey,  and  across 
the  Delaware  River  at  Trenton  into  Pennsylvania. 
Half  a  year  had  not  passed  since  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  when  the  cause  of  America  seemed 
already  lost.  "  We  looked  upon  the  contest  as  nearly 
closed,"  Major  Thomas  assured  his  patriot  friends, 
"and  considered  ourselves  a  vanquished  people." 
The  indifferent  populace  of  New  York  and  New 
Jersey  came  in  crowds  to  swear  allegiance  to  the  vic 
torious  army.  No  one  doubted  that  Howe  would 
cross  the  river  and  take  Philadelphia.  The  jubilant 
Loyalists  of  the  capital  city  awaited  their  deliver 
ance.  Congress,  bundling  its  records  into  a  farm 
wagon,  scrambled  away  to  Baltimore.  And  even  the 
steadfast  Washington,  with  his  tatterdemalion  army 
reduced  to  three  thousand  effectives,  wrote  that  if 
new  troops  could  not  be  raised  without  delay  "  the 
game  is  nearly  up." 

Of  Villeroi,  a  general  in  the  army  of  Louis  XIV, 


256  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

it  was  said  that  he  had  uwell  served  the  king  — 
William."  It  might  be  said  of  Howe  that  he  shares 
with  Washington  the  merit  of  achieving  American 
independence.  He  never  quite  deserted  the  patriot 
cause ;  and  now,  at  this  critical  moment,  instead  of 
pressing  on  to  Philadelphia,  he  retired  his  main 
army,  leaving  only  some  Hessian  outposts  at  Tren 
ton  and  Bordentown.  This  arrangement  enabled 
Washington  to  revive  the  waning  enthusiasm  of  the 
country  by  executing  one  of  the  most  daring  and 
brilliant  strokes  of  the  war.  Amidst  the  snow  and 
sleet  of  a  bitter  December  night,  he  ferried  his  for 
lorn  little  force  through  the  floating  ice  of  the  Dela 
ware,  and  on  Christmas  morning  of  1776  surprised 
and  captured  Colonel  Rail  and  one  thousand  Hes 
sians.  Cornwallis,  on  the  point  of  departure  for  Eng 
land,  was  hastily  recalled  to  recover  the  lost  ground  ; 
but  iie  was  out-generaled  and  defeated,  and  Wash 
ington  occupied  Morristown  Heights,  wHere  he  would 
indeed  have  been  "left  to  scuffle  for  Liberty  like  an 
other  Cato,"  had  he  not  been,  to  his  great  amaze 
ment,  allowed  by  the  British  commander' to  remain 
unmolested  there  until  the  next  spring.  "  All  winter," 
he  writes,  "we  were  at  their  mercy,  with  sometimes 
scarcely  a  sufficient  body  of  men  to  mount  the  ordi 
nary  guards,  liable  at  every  moment  to  be  dissipated, 
if  they  had  only  thought  proper  to  march  against 
us." 

If  the  conduct  of  the  British  genera]  in  the  win 
ter  of  1777  amazed  Washington,  his  management  of 
the  next  campaign  was  even  more  inexplicable.  The 
army  of  Burgoyne  was  then  moving  slowly  south- 


THE  WINNING   OF   INDEPENDENCE     257 

ward  from  Canada  by  way  of  Lake  Champlain  and 
the  Hudson  River.  It  was  the  intention  of  the  min 
isters  that  Howe  should  cooperate  with  the  northern 
army ;  and  Washington  supposed  that  the  purpose 
of  the  campaign  was  to  effect  a  complete  separa 
tion  of  New  England  from  the  more  Loyalist  Middle 
and  Southern  colonies.  As  this  was  thought  to  be 
precisely  the  most  fatal  circumstance  which  could 
come  to  pass,  an  army,  far  larger  than  that  of  Wash 
ington,  was  gathering  to  check  if  possible  the  ad 
vance  of  Burgoyne.  But  Howe  neither  moved  north 
to  the  relief  of  Burgoyne,  nor  sent  any  part  of  his 
troops  until  it  was  too  late.  Wasting  the  early  sum 
mer  in  fruitless  maneuvers  in  northern  Jersey,  he 
finally  carried  his  army  by  sea  to  the  Chesapeake 
Bay,  where  he  arrived  on  the  21st  of  August.  The 
general  had  sailed  three  hundred  miles,  and  had 
now  to  march  fifty  miles  more,  in  order  to  reach 
Philadelphia,  which  was  ninety-two  miles  from  the 
point  where  he  first  embarked ;  and  the  army  of 
Washington,  the  very  army  which  he  had  sailed  so 
far  and  wasted  so  many  precious  weeks  to  avoid,  still 
lay  across  his  path.  At  Brandy  wine  and  Germantown 
he  fought,  and  easily  won,  the  battles  which  could 
no  longer  be  avoided.  The  way  to  Philadelphia  was 
indeed  open  ;  but  the  fate  of  the  northern  army  was 
already  sealed.  Caught  in  the  difficult  forests  of  the 
Hudson  Valley,  with  supplies  exhausted,  unable 
either  to  retreat  or  to  advance,  on  October  17,  thir 
teen  days  after  Howe  won  the  battle  of  Germantown, 
Burgoyne  lost  the  battle  of  Saratoga  and  surrendered 
his  entire  army  to  General  Gates. 


258  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

The  loss  of  Philadelphia  was  almost  forgotten 
in  the  general  rejoicing  that  followed  the  victory 
of  Saratoga.  And  the  surrender  of  Burgoyne  was 
indeed  a  decisive  event;  for  it  inspired  Ameri 
cans  with  new  resolution  and  was  followed  by  the 
formal  alliance  with  France.  For  months  Franklin 
had  been  in  France  preparing  the  way  for  a  treaty. 
The  very  presence  of  the  man  on  the  streets  of  Paris 
was  an  influence  in  favor  of  the  American  cause.  To 
the  Frenchmen  of  that  day,  when  Voltaire  and 
Rousseau  and  Fenelon  had  come  into  their  own,  this 
sage  from  the  primitive  forest,  already  famous  as  a 
scientist,  this  homely  preacher  of  the  virtues  of  fru 
gality,  with  his  unconventional  wisdom  and  his 
genial  tolerance,  was  the  ideal  philosopher  of  that 
state  of  nature  which  they  had  in  imagination  set 
over  as  a  shining  contrast  to  the  artificial  and  corrupt 
society  in  which  they  lived.  The  enthusiasm  of  the 
nation  for  an  oppressed  people  gave  support  to  the 
Government  when  war  was  once  declared,  tmt  it 
cannot  be  said  that  it  had  much  influence  in  induc 
ing  the  king  to  agree  to  the  alliance  with  England's 
rebellious  colonies.  Bringing  to  bear  all  the  resources 
which  native  wit  and  long  experience  had  placed  at 
his  command,  Franklin  had  already,  encumbered  as 
he  was  with  unwise  colleagues,  procured  much  secret 
assistance.  It  is  possible  that  the  French  Government 
had  not  originally  intended  to  depart  from  this  policy  ; 
but  after  the  surrender  of  Burgoyne,  French  agents 
in  London  assured  Vergennes  that  the  colonies  were 
on  the  point  of  making  peace  with  England,  and  of 
joining  her,  as  the  price  of  independence,  in  an 


THE  WINNING  OF   INDEPENDENCE     259 

attack  upon  the  French  West  Indies.  Since  war 
seemed  inevitable,  it  was  manifestly  better  to  have 
the  assistance  of  America  than  her  opposition.  Ver- 
gennes  therefore  signified  to  Franklin  his  willing 
ness  to  negotiate  a  treaty  without  delay;  and  there 
was  signed  under  date  of  February  6,  1778,  at  Ver 
sailles,  a  defensive  and  offensive  alliance  between 
the  United  States  of  America,  recently  founded 
upon  the  revolutionary  principle  of  popular  sover 
eignty,  and  His  Most  Christian  Majesty,  Louis  XVI, 
by  Grace  of  God  King  of  France  and  Navarre.1 

In  spite  of  the  resource  and  tenacity  of  Wash 
ington  and  the  convenient  inactivity  of  Howe,  it  is 
difficult  to  see  how  the  Revolution  could  have  suc 
ceeded  without  the  assistance  which  now  came  from 
France.  Contrary  to  expectation,  French  troops  and 
even  the  French  navy  were  of  little  direct  aid  until 
the  battle  of  Yorktown.  But  French  gold  financed 
the  \\ttr.  *In  the  winter  of  1778,  when  Washington's 
heroic  remnant  of  barefoot  soldiers  lay  starving  at 
Valley  Forge  while  Pennsylvania  farmers  sold  pro 
visions  to  the  British  and  Loyalists  who  were  com 
fortable  and  merry  at  Philadelphia,  the  Continental 
Congress  was  already  a  discredited  and  half  bank 
rupt  Government.  Confiscated  Loyalist  property  was 
sold  for  the  benefit  of  the  new  State  Governments ; 

1  Professor  C.  H.  Van  Tyne,  of  the  University  of  Michigan,  has 
recently  found  new  material  in  the  Paris  Archives,  notahly  a  Ver- 
gennes  memoir  of  1782  and  memoirs  presented  by  the  ministers  at 
the  time  of  forming  the  treaty,  which  to  his  mind  proves  conclu 
sively  that  the  Government  would  never  have  formed  the  alliance 
with  America  had  it  not  been  convinced  that  otherwise  the  colonies 
were  prepared  to  join  England  in  the  conquest  of  the  French  West 
Indies. 


260  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

and  Congress,  unable  to  collect  its  requisitions,  was 
forced  to  rely  upon  ever-increasing  issues  of  paper 
money.  In  this  very  year  163,000,000  were  added  to 
the  $38,000,000  already  in  circulation,  and  in  1779 
the  printers  turned  out  $143,000,000  more.  Laws 
fixing  prices  were  without  effect,  and  the  value  of 
paper  fell  to  33  cents  on  the  dollar  in  1777,  to  12 
cents  in  1779,  and  to  2  cents  in  1780.  When  a  pound 
of  tea  sold  for  $100,  when  Thomas  Paine  bought 
woolen  stockings  at  S3 00  a  pair  and  Jefferson  brandy 
at  $125  a  quart,  General  Gates  could  with  $500,000 
of  paper  get  a  hundred  yards  of  fence  built  in  which 
to  guard  British  prisoners,  but  arms  and  munitions 
of  war  were  forthcoming  only  so  long  as  drafts  on 
Franklin  were  honored  by  the  French  Government. 
But  if  the  French  alliance  brought  assistance  to  the 
Americans,  it  induced  the  English  Government  to 
undertake  a  more  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war. 
The  ministers  had  doubtless  thought  that  the  policy 
of  conducting  the  war  with  the  olive  branch  and  the 
sword  in  either  hand  would  prove  successful.  Cer 
tainly  Howe  had  so  interpreted  his  instructions.  He 
had  fought  only  when  it  was  necessary  to  fight :  eas 
ily  accomplished  everything  he  seriously  attempted ; 
never  pressed  any  advantage ;  had  supposed  that  by 
occupying  the  principal  cities,  affording  protection  to 
the  loyal,  and  by  moderation  winning  the  lukewarm, 
the  flame  of  rebellion  would  burn  low  for  want  of 
fuel  and  in  good  time  quite  flicker  out.  Too  faith 
fully  followed  by  half,  this  policy  had  ended  in  the 
humiliation  of  Saratoga  and  in  the  added  burden  of 
a  war  with  France.  News  of  Burgoyne's  surrender 


THE  WINNING   OF   INDEPENDENCE     261 

scarcely  reached  England  before  offers  of  concilia 
tion,  embracing  more  than  every  concession  the  col 
onies  had  originally  demanded,  were  hastily  pushed 
through  Parliament  and  entrusted  to  commissioners 
sent  to  America  to  negotiate  peace.  It  was  now  too 
late.  Once  before,  just  after  the  battle  of  Long  Is 
land,  General  Howe,  declaring  himself  authorized  to 
discuss  terms  of  conciliation,  had  induced  Congress 
to  send  a  committee  to  meet  him  at  Staten  Island. 
The  conference  came  to  nothing ;  and  the  only  effect 
of  the  episode  was  to  create  a  strong  suspicion  in  the 
mind  of  the  French  Minister  that  the  Americans 
would  abandon  their  Declaration  at  the  first  conven 
ient  opportunity.  It  was  above  all  necessary  that  the 
ardor  of  France  should  not  again  be  damped  by  any 
further  dallying  with  English  offers.  The  commis 
sioners  were  therefore  coolly  received,  and  the  at 
tempt  of  Johnstone  to  bribe  Washington  and  Reed, 
published  by  Congress  in  August,  1778,  only  fur 
nished  new  fuel  to  the  patriot  flame. 

Aroused  by  the  French  alliance  and  the  flouting 
of  its  offers  of  conciliation,  the  English  Government 
now  set  about  to  wage  war  in  earnest.  General 
Howe  had  returned  to  England  in  May,  1778,  to 
stand  a  Parliamentary  investigation  ;  and  when  Gen 
eral  Clinton  who  succeeded  him  evacuated  Phila 
delphia,  and,  barely  escaping  disaster  at  the  battle 
of  Monmouth,  carried  his  army  back  to  New  York, 
the  olive  branch  was  thrown  away  and  the  war  took 
on  a  new  character.  Ignoring  the  patriot  army,  the 
British  general  resorted  to  the  policy  of  ruthless 
raids  against  the  prosperous  Northern  coast  commu- 


262  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

nities,  burning  their  towns  and  their  shipping,  de 
stroying  their  industries,  and  carrying  off  their  pro 
visions.  In  1779,  Virginia,  which  since  1776  had 
quietly  raised  tobacco,  and  the  provisions  which  had 
so  largely  subsisted  Washington's  army,  was  laid 
waste  all  along  its  easily  accessible  river  highways. 
Savannah  was  taken  late  in  1778,  and  at  the  close 
of  the  next  year  Clinton  himself  commanded  an  ex 
pedition  which  in  May,  1780,  captured  the  city  of 
Charleston  and  forced  General  Lincoln  to  surrender 
his  army  of  2500  Continental  troops.  "  We  look  upon 
America  as  at  our  feet,"  wrote  Horace  Walpole. 
And  in  fact  the  occupation  of  Georgia  and  South 
Carolina  was  regarded  by  the  English,  by  the  Amer 
ican  Loyalists,  and  by  many  patriots,  as  the  prelude 
to  the  conquest  of  the  entire  South  and  the  end  of 
the  rebellion. 

Little  wonder  if  in  these  days  of  constant  defeat 
and  declining  enthusiasm  Congress  too  often  fell  to 
the  level  of  a  wrangling  body  of  mediocre  men.  After 
the  first  years  the  ability  that  might  have  given  it 
dignity  was  largely  employed  in  the  army,  on  diplo 
matic  missions,  or  in  the  establishment  and  adminis 
tration  of  the  new  State  Governments.  The  particu 
larism  of  the  time  is  revealed  in  the  belief  that  a 
man's  first  allegiance  was  to  his  State ;  to  construct 
a  constitution  for  Massachusetts  wras  thought  to  be  a 
greater  service  than  to  draft  the  Articles  of  Confed 
eration  ;  to  be  Governor  of  Virginia  a  higher  honor 
than  to  be  President  of  Congress.  The  political  wis 
dom  of  the  decade  is  therefore  chiefly  embodied  in 
the  first  state  constitutions  and  the  legislation  of 


THE  WINNING   OF   INDEPENDENCE     263 

the  new  State  Governments.  The  constitutions  gave 
formal  expression  to  the  philosophy  of  the  Kevolu- 
tion,  but  in  their  detailed  arrangements  followed 
closely  the  practices  and  traditions  inherited  from  the 
colonial  period  ;  popular  sovereignty  was  everywhere 
declared,  but  everywhere  limited  by  basing  the  suf 
frage  upon  property,  and  often  half  defeated  by 
adopting  an  administrative  mechanism  in  harmony 
with  the  prevailing  belief  that  good  government 
springs  from  "  power  balanced  and  cancelled  and  dis 
persed."  The  new  regime  was  not  altogether  such  as 
Patrick  Henry  or  Jefferson  would  have  made  it,  but 
it  marked  a  safe  and  conservative  advance  toward 
the  "  establishment  of  a  more  equal  liberty "  than 
had  hitherto  prevailed. 

The  erection  of  stable  State  Governments  greatly 
diminished  the  power  and  the  prestige  of  federal 
authority.  Insensibly  the  Congress  and  the  Conti 
nental  army  found  themselves  dependent  upon  thir 
teen  sovereign  masters.  The  feebleness  with  which 
the  war  was  supported  sometimes  strikes  one  as  in 
credible  ;  but  the  amazing  difficulty  of  maintaining 
an  army  of  ten  thousand  troops  for  the  achievement 
of  independence,  in  the  very  colonies  which  had  raised 
twenty-five  thousand  for  the  conquest  of  Canada,  was 
due  less  to  the  lack  of  resources,  or  to  indifference 
to  the  result,  than  to  the  uncertain  authority  of  Con 
gress,  the  republican  fear  of  military  power,  and  the 
jealous  provincialism  which  had  everywhere  been 
greatly  accentuated  by  the  establishment  of  the  new 
state  constitutions.  Washington's  army  naturally 
looked  with  contempt  upon  a  Government  that  could 


264  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

not  feed  or  clothe  its  own  soldiers.  Congress,  jealous 
of  its  authority  for  the  very  reason  that  it  had  none, 
criticized  the  army  in  defeat  and  feared  it  in  victory. 
The  State  Governments,  refusing  to  conform  to  the 
recommendations  of  Congress,  alternately  complained 
of  its  weakness  and  denounced  it  for  usurping  un 
warranted  power.  Each  State  wished  to  maintain 
control  of  its  own  troops,  and  was  offended  if,  in  the 
Continental  forces,  its  many  military  experts  were 
not  all  major-generals.  The  very  colony  which  gave 
little  support  to  the  army  when  war  raged  in  another 
province,  cried  aloud  for  protection  when  the  enemy 
crossed  its  own  sacred  boundaries  ;  and,  with  perhaps 
one  eighth  of  its  proper  quota  of  men  at  the  front, 
with  its  requisitions  in  taxes  unpaid,  wished  to  know 
whether  it  was  because  of  incompetence  or  timidity 
that  General  Washington  failed  to  win  victories. 

After  all  the  wonder  is  rather  that  Congress  ac 
complished  anything  than  that  it  did  so  little.  A 
Frenchman,  asked  what  he  did  during  the  Terror, 
replied  that  he  lived.  It  was  no  small  merit  in  the 
Continental  Congress  that  it  held  together  and  main 
tained  even  the  tradition  of  union ;  a  higher  merit 
still  that  in  the  midst  of  war  it  fashioned  a  federal 
constitution  which  the  thirteen  States,  more  divided 
by  jealousy  and  their  newly  won  authority  than  they 
were  united  by  a  common  danger,  could  be  induced 
to  approve.  Yet  this  task  the  Congress  with  difficulty 
got  accomplished.  In  1777,  after  months  of  debate, 
it  adopted  the  Articles  of  Confederation.  Leaving 
political  sovereignty  in  the  several  states,  they  pro 
vided  for  a  federal  legislature  with  a  very  limited 


THE  WINNING   OF   INDEPENDENCE     265 

authority  to  make  laws,  but  no  federal  executire  to 
enforce  them.  Hopelessly  inadequate  as  this  consti 
tution  was  to  prove,  the  small  States,  notably  Mary 
land,  refused  to  approve  it  until  the  larger  States 
ceded  their  Western  lands  to  the  common  Govern 
ment.  Virginia,  possessed  of  the  most  extensive  do 
main,  held  out  longest,  but  finally  renounced  her 
claims  January  2,  1781 ;  and  in  March  of  that  year 
it  was  announced  that  Maryland  had  ratified  the 
Articles  of  Confederation,  which  thus  became  the 
first  constitution  of  the  United  States. 

In  1779,  while  the  States  were  wrangling  over 
their  Western  lands,  a  little  band  of  valiant  back 
woodsmen  won  a  victory  which  gave  substance  to 
their  claims  and  made  their  cessions  something  more 
than  waste  paper.  Throughout  the  war  the  frontier 
communities  were  most  loyal  supporters  of  the  Revo 
lution.  Their  expert  riflemen,  organized  in  com 
panies,  of  which  that  of  Daniel  Morgan  is  perhaps 
the  most  famous,  served  in  the  army  of  Washington, 
helped  Gates  to  win  the  battle  of  Saratoga,  and  were 
of  indispensable  service  in  driving  Clinton  out  of 
North  Carolina  in  1780,  and  Cornwallis  in  1781. 
The  borderers  of  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia,  and  the 
little  settlements  at  Watauga  and  Boonesboro,  main 
tained  a  heroic  defense  against  the  Indians,  who  were 
paid  by  General  Hamilton,  the  British  commander 
at  Detroit,  to  wage  a  war  of  massacre  and  pillage  on 
the  frontier.  Against  intermittent  Indian  raids  the 
backwoodsmen  could  defend  their  homes  ;  but  so  long 
as  the  British  held  Detroit  and  Vincennes  and  the 
Mississippi  forts,  there  could  be  no  peace  in  the 


266  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

interior,  and  even  if  the  colonies  won  independence, 
it  was  likely  that  the  Alleghanies  would  mark  the 
boundary  of  the  new  State.  Under  these  circum 
stances,  George  Eogers  Clark,  trapper  and  expert 
woodsman  and  Indian  fighter,  set  himself,  with  the 
confident  idealism  of  the  frontiersman,  to  achieve  an 
object  which  must  have  seemed  to  most  men  no  more 
than  a  forlorn  hope.  It  was  in  1777  that  he  crossed 
the  mountains  to  Virginia,  secured  the  secret  and 
semi-official  authorization  of  Patrick  Henry,  the 
Governor  of  the  State,  and  raised  a  company  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  men  with  which  to  undertake  noth 
ing  less  than  the  destruction  of  British  power  in  the 
great  Northwest. 

In  May,  1778,  the  little  band  floated  from  Red 
stone  down  the  Ohio,  at  the  falls  built  a  fort  which 
they  named  Louisville  in  honor  of  the  French  King, 
and  finally,  on  July  4,  reached  Kaskaskia.  Guided  by 
some  hunters  who  had  joined  them,  they  took  the 
fort  by  stratagem.  The  Indians,  for  the  moment 
a  greater  danger  than  the  British,  were  overawed 
by  the  skill  and  the  masterful  personality  of  Clark ; 
and  the  Creoles,  conciliated  by  his  moderation,  gladly 
joined  in  the  capture  of  Cahokia.  Not  until  Febru 
ary,  1779,  was  the  intrepid  commander  ready  to 
march  on  Vincennes.  General  Hamilton  had  recently 
come  there  with  a  small  force,  and  there  he  proposed 
to  remain  until  spring  before  marching  to  the  recap 
ture  of  Kaskaskia  and  the  destruction  of  the  settle 
ments  south  of  the  Ohio,  never  dreaming  that  men 
could  be  found  to  cross  the  "  drowned  lands  "  of  the 
Wabash  in  the  inclement  winter  months.  This  fear- 


THE  WINNING   OF   INDEPENDENCE    267 

f ul  challenge  was  what  Clark  and  his  men  accepted  ; 
marching  two  hundred  and  thirty  miles  over  bogs 
and  flooded  lowlands ;  without  tents,  and  sometimes 
without  food  or  fire ;  as  they  neared  Vincennes  break 
ing  the  thin  ice  at  every  step,  often  neck-deep  in 
water ;  yet  succeeding  at  last,  they  took  the  fort  and 
sent  Hamilton  to  Virginia  a  prisoner  of  war,  Detroit 
remained  in  British  hands ;  but  the  possession  of 
Vincennes  and  the  Mississippi  forts  probably  saved 
the  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  settlements  from  destruc 
tion,  and  doubtless  had  some  influence  in  disposing 
England  to  cede  the  Western  country  at  the  close 
of  the  war. 

Yet  in  spite  of  this  signal  victory,  in  spite  of  the 
French  alliance,  the  darkest  days  of  the  war  were 
yet  to  come.  In  the  year  1780  the  Revolution  seemed 
fallen  from  a  struggle  for  worthy  principles  to  the 
level  of  mean  reprisals,  a  contest  of  brigands  bent  on 
plunder  and  revenge.  That  it  had  come  to  this  pass 
was  partly  due  to  Clinton's  policy  of  detached  raids ; 
but  the  policy  of  raids  was  a  practical  one  precisely 
because  in  nearly  every  colony  there  was  a  large 
body  of  active  Loyalists,  a  larger  number  still  who 
were  indifferent,  wishing  only  to  be  left  alone,  ready 
to  submit  to  whichever  side  might  win  at  last.  Driven 
from  their  homes,  plundered  by  British  or  patriot 
raiders,  they  in  turn  organized  for  revenge,  sought 
plunder  where  they  could  find  it,  caring  not  whether 
they  served  under  Loyalist  or  Revolutionist  banners. 
In  South  Carolina,  laid  waste  by  the  light  troops  of 
Tarleton  and  the  partisans  of  Marion  and  Sumter, 
in  all  the  regions  round  New  York,  in  the  Jerseys, 


268  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

on  Long  Island  and  in  parts  of  Connecticut,  even 
the  semblance  of  government  and  the  customary  rou 
tine  of  ordered  society  disappeared.  The  issues  that 
had  once  divided  men  were  forgotten  while  bands 
of  Associated  Loyalists  and  bands  of  Liberty  Boys 
plundered  the  inhabitants  indiscriminately,  hailed 
each  other  as  they  passed  in  the  night,  or  agreed, 
with  the  honor  that  prevails  among  thieves,  to  an 
equitable  division  of  the  spoils. 

And  few  victories  came  in  this  disastrous  year  to 
cheer  the  remnant  of  tried  Americans.  Clinton's  in 
vasion  of  North  Carolina  was,  indeed,  a  failure ;  and 
at  the  close  of  1780,  after  the  frontier  troops  had 
overwhelmingly  defeated  General  Ferguson  at  King's 
Mountain,  the  British  were  forced  to  evacuate  that 
strongly  revolutionary  colony.  But  Washington  could 
do  little  more  than  hold  with  the  desperation  of  de 
spair  to  West  Point,  where  his  army  had  lain  helpless 
and  almost  passive  since  the  battle  of  Monmouth. 
Congress,  barely  able  to  hold  together,  could  not  main 
tain  even  that  "  verbal  energy "  which  had  once 
distinguished  it.  In  this  year  as  never  before  men 
served  their  country  with  one  hand  and  with  the  other 
filled  their  pockets  by  manipulating  the  currency 
which  had  fallen  to  be  a  worthless  scrip.  And  it  was 
in  this  year,  when  fidelity  seemed  a  forgotten  virtue, 
when  men  enlisted  in  the  army  and  deserted  to  the 
enemy  with  equal  indifference,  that  Benedict  Arnold, 
entrusted  at  his  own  request  with  the  command  of 
West  Point,  forswore  his  trust  and  wrote  treason 
across  the  fair  record  of  a  patriot's  achievements. 
Well  might  Washington  write,  "  I  have  almost  ceased 


THE  WINNING   OF   INDEPENDENCE     269 

to  hope  " ;  and  Laurens,  "  How  many  men  there  are 
who  in  secret  say,  could  I  have  believed  it  would 
come  to  this  !  " 

Yet  at  last  a  happy  combination  of  circumstances 
enabled  the  American  and  French  forces,  for  the 
the  first  time  operating  in  complete  accord,  to  bring 
this  disastrous  war  to  a  most  successful  conclusion. 
Well  aware  of  the  importance  of  the  Southern  cam 
paign,  Washington  had  procured  for  Greene,  the 
ablest  of  his  generals,  command  of  the  forces  which 
were  gathering  in  North  Carolina  to  resist  the  advance 
of  Cornwallis  in  1781.  Defeated  at  the  Cowpens  and 
checked   at   Guilford,   the   British   commander  was 
forced  to  retire  to  Wilmington ;  but  instead  of  return 
ing  to  Charleston  he  moved  into  Virginia  to  join 
Arnold,  convinced  that  the  conquest  of  the  Old  Do 
minion  must  precede  that  of  North  Carolina.  In  May 
and   June   he   carried   ruin  to  all  the  prosperous 
towns  of  the  province ;  but  in  July,  when  the  Ameri 
can  forces  under  Lafayette  had  been  greatly  strength 
ened,  it  was  no  longer  safe  for  the  British  commander 
to  divide  his  army.  Acting  under  orders  from  Clinton, 
Cornwallis  accordingly  retired  to  the  coast  and  for 
tified  the  neck  of  land  at  Yorktown.  Washington 
had  scarcely  been  apprised  of  this  circumstance  before 
he  received  a  letter  from  the  Count  de  Grasse,  com 
mander  of  the  French  naval  forces  in  the  West  In 
dies,  proposing  joint  operations  in  Virginia  during 
the  summer,  and  promising  to  bring  his  fleet  to  the 
Chesapeake  sometime  in  August.    The  opportunity 
was  a  rare  one.  Abandoning  the  projected  attack  on 
New    York,   Washington    and   Rochambeau   joined 


270  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

their  forces  and  marched  rapidly  through  New  Jer 
sey,  entering  Philadelphia  the  very  day  that  De 
Grasse  appeared  at  the  mouth  of  the  bay.  They  had 
already  joined  Lafayette  before  Admiral  Graves  ar 
rived  from  New  York  with  a  British  fleet  to  rescue 
the  British  general.  Had  Graves  been  a  Rodney  or 
a  Nelson  he  might  have  given  a  different  issue  to 
the  American  Revolution ;  but  he  was  not  the  man 
to  win  against  great  odds,  and  after  an  indecisive 
engagement  he  sailed  away,  leaving  Cornwallis  to 
his  fate.  Hemmed  in  by  16,000  American  and 
French  troops,  the  unhappy  general,  who  never  met 
Washington  but  to  be  defeated,  surrendered  his  army 
of  7000  men  on  the  19th  of  October,  1781. 

"  It  is  all  over  !  "  cried  Lord  North  when  Germaine 
told  him  of  the  surrender  of  Cornwallis.  The  loss  of 
7000  men  was  not  in  itself  an  irremediable  disaster; 
but  the  effort  of  the  king  and  the  "  King's  Friends  " 
to  establish  the  personal  rule  of  the  monarch  had 
alienated  the  nation,  while  their  attempt  to  subju 
gate  the  colonies  had  embroiled  England  with  all 
Europe.  In  armed  conflict  with  France,  Spain,  and 
Holland,  opposed  by  the  "  armed  neutrality "  of 
Russia,  Sweden,  Denmark,  the  Empire,  Portugal, 
the  Two  Sicilies,  and  the  Ottoman  Empire,  never 
had  the  isolation  of  the  little  island  kingdom  been 
more  splendid,  or  British  prestige  so  diminished.  The 
demand  of  the  nation  for  peace  could  no  longer  be 
resisted,  and  the  Whig  party  came  into  power  over 
the  king's  will,  and  entered  into  negotiation  with  the 
enemies  he  had  made.  The  American  ambassadors 
were  instructed  by  Congress  and  bound  in  honor  not 


THE  WINNING   OF   INDEPENDENCE     271 

to  make  a  treaty  without  the  knowledge  and  consent 
of  France.  But  in  spite  of  Franklin's  protest,  Jay 
and  Adams,  who  suspected,  not  without  some  show 
of  reason  but  contrary  to  the  fact,  that  Vergennes 
would  oppose  the  extension  of  the  United  States  be 
yond  the  Alleghanies,  broke  their  instructions  as 
readily  as  Jay  broke  his  pipe,  and  without  consult 
ing  their  faithful  ally  arranged  the  terms  of  peace 
with  England. 

Independence  was  acknowledged  as  the  indispen 
sable  preliminary  to  negotiation.  John  Adams  de 
clared  that  he  "  had  no  notion  of  cheating  anybody,*' 
and  it  was  agreed  that  British  creditors  should  "  meet 
with  no  lawful  impediment  to  the  recovery  of  all  ... 
bonafide  debts  heretofore  contracted"  in  the  colo 
nies.  The  skill  of  Franklin  and  the  resolute  persist 
ence  of  Jay  and  Adams,  together  with  the  desire  of 
the  English  Government  to  make  a  peace  without 
delay,  enabled  the  Americans  to  gain,  in  every  other 
disputed  point,  all  they  could  hope  for  and  more 
than  they  had  any  reason  to  expect.  It  was  conceded 
that  they  should  enjoy  the  customary  right  of  fishing 
in  Northern  waters.  The  best  effort  of  England  to 
secure  a  restoration  of  property  and  of  the  rights  of 
citizens  to  the  Loyalists  was  unavailing,  and  the 
compensation  of  that  unhappy  class  fell  to  the  Gov 
ernment  whose  losing  cause  it  had  supported.  But 
of  all  the  provisions  of  this  Peace  of  Paris,  the  most 
important,  next  to  the  acknowledgment  of  independ 
ence,  was  the  one  which  gave  to  the  new  State  that 
incomparably  rich  woodland  and  prairie  country  ex 
tending  from  the  thirty-first  degree  of  north  latitude 


272  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

to  the  Great  Lakes,  and  as  far  west  as  the  Missis 
sippi  River.  With  these  as  its  main  provisions,  the 
definitive  treaty  was  signed  on  September  3,  1783, 
and  ratified  by  Congress  January  14,  1784. 

Before  the  treaty  of  peace  was  signed,  the  cessa 
tion  of  hostilities  had  been  formally  declared  and  an 
nounced  to  Washington's  army  on  the  19th  of  April, 
eight  years  to  a  day  after  the  battle  of  Lexington. 
British  troops  occupied  New  York  until  November 
29,  when  the  evacuation  of  the  city  was  finally  com 
pleted,  and  the  United  States  of  America  entered  the 
company  of  independent  nations,  the  exhausted  and 
half-ruined  champion  of  those  principles  of  liberty 
and  equality  which  were  soon  to  transform  the  Euro 
pean  world.  With  the  British  troops  there  sailed 
away,  never  to  return,  a  great  company  of  Loyalist 
exiles;  part  of  the  thousands  who  renounced  their 
heritage  and  their  country  in  defense  of  political  and 
social  ideals  that  belonged  to  the  past.  America  thus 
lost  the  service  of  many  men  of  ability,  of  high  integ 
rity,  and  of  genuine  culture ;  clergymen  and  scholars, 
landowners  and  merchants  of  substantial  estate,  men 
learned  in  the  law,  high  officials  of  proved  experience 
in  politics  and  administration.  The  great  achieve 
ments  of  history  have  their  price;  and  American 
independence  was  won  only  by  the  sacrifice  of  much 
that  was  best  in  colonial  society.  Something  fine  and 
amiable  in  manners,  something  charming  in  customs, 
much  that  was  most  excellent  in  the  traditions  of 
politics  and  public  morality  disappeared  with  the 
ruin  of  those  who  thought  themselves,  and  who  often 
were  in  fact,  of  "the  better  sort." 


rea  of  settlement  in  English  Continental  Coloni 


Boundary  proposed  by  Spain  in  1782  tor  the  I'.  S 

Boundary  secured  by  the  treaty  of  1783. 

:•:•  •&.  Settlements  west  of  the  Alleghanies  in  1783. 
ased  upon  maps  in  Roosevelt's  Winning  of  the  West,  77. 
G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  Xew  York  and  London. 
SCALE  of  MTLES 


THE  WINNING   OF   INDEPENDENCE     273 

Happily  for  America  not  all  of  the  "  better  sort " 
deserted  their  country.  On  the  4th  of  December, 
five  days  after  the  last  British  ship  cleared  New 
York  Harbor,  a  little  company  of  officers  was  gathered 
in  the  Long  Room  of  Fraunce's  Tavern.  They  were 
waiting  to  bid  farewell  to  General  Washington.  No 
sign  of  rejoicing  greeted  the  entrance  of  the  familiar 
figure;  and  this  masterful  man  of  proved  courage 
and  inflexible  will,  this  self-contained  soul  who  en 
dured  calumny  in  silence,  who  accepted  victory  in 
even  temper  and  defeat  with  high  fortitude,  was  now 
strangely  moved  as  he  looked  upon  his  beloved  com 
panions.  Lifting  a  glass  of  wine  he  said  simply: 
"  W^ith  a  heart  full  of  love  and  gratitude  I  now  take 
leave  of  you,  most  devoutly  wishing  that  your  latter 
days  may  be  as  prosperous  and  happy  as  your  former 
ones  have  been  glorious  and  honorable."  When  all 
had  taken  the  general's  hand  and  received  his  em 
brace,  they  walked  together  through  the  narrow 
street  to  Whitehall  Ferry,  where  a  barge  lay  wait 
ing.  As  the  oars  struck  the  water  Washington  stood 
and  lifted  his  hat ;  and  his  comrades,  returning  the 
salute  in  silence,  watched  the  majestic  figure  until  it 
disappeared  from  sight.  Less  than  two  years  before, 
in  the  spring  of  1782,  the  army  would  have  made 
Washington  king.  He  was  now  on  his  way  to  An 
napolis,  to  present  himself  before  Congress  in  order 
to  resign  the  high  office  which  eight  years  before  he 
had  accepted  with  so  much  diffidence,  and  to  claim 
the  indulgence  of  retiring  from  the  service  of  his 
country.  This,  as  it  happened,  came  to  pass  on  the 
23d  of  December.  On  the  day  following  he  rode 


274  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

away  to  his  home  at  Mount  Yernon,  a  private  citizen 
of  the  Republic  which  he  had  done  so  much  to  estab 
lish  ;  a  citizen  of  the  Republic,  and  of  the  world's 
heroes  one  of  the  most  illustrious. 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

A  good  brief  account  of  the  Revolution  is  in  Smith's  The  Wars 
Between  England  and  America  (1914),  chaps,  i-vi;  a  fuller  and 
better  account  in  Channing's  History  of  the  United  States,  in,  chaps, 
i-xn;  all  things  considered  the  ablest  summary  is  Leckv's  The 
American  Revolution.  An  able  and  suggestive  work  is  Fisher's 
The  Struggle  for  American  Independence,  2  vols.  1908.  Sir  George 
Otto  Trevelyan,  with  wide  information,  strong  Whig  sympathies, 
and  great  charm  of  style,  has  written  the  most  fascinating  work  on 
the  subject,  The  American  Revolution,  4  vols.  1905.  The  best  study 
of  British  measures  which  precipitated  the  struggle  is  Beer's 
British  Colonial  Policy,  1754-1765.  1907.  For  bibliography  and 
summary  of  contemporary  literature,  Tyler's  Literary  History  of 
the  American  Revolution.  Selections  from  newspapers  and  con 
temporary  documents  are  in  Moore's  Diary  of  the  American  Revo 
lution,  2  vols.  1860.  For  the  Loyalists,  see  Tyler,  in  American 
Historical  Review,  i;  Van  Tyne,  The  Loyalists  in  the  American  Rev 
olution.  1902.  For  the  attitude  of  the  clergy,  and  the  influence  of 
religious  and  sectarian  forces,  see  Van  Tyne,  in  American  Historical 
Review,  xix;  Cross,  The  Anglican  Episcopate.  1902.  Thornton 
(The  Pulpit  of  the  American  Revolution.  Boston,  1860)  reprints  a 
number  of  contemporary  sermons  by  New  England  clergy.  For 
the  Western  settlements  see  Roosevelt,  Winning  of  the  West,  4 
vols.;  Alden,  New  Governments  West  of  the  Alleghani.es,  in  Wiscon 
sin  Historical  Bulletin,  n;  Turner,  in  American  Historical  Review,  r, 
Thwaites,  How  George  Rogers  Clark  Won  the  North  West.  1903. 
The  opposition  between  the  interior  and  the  coast  regions,  and 
the  bearing  of  this  on  the  formation  of  radical  and  conservative 
parties  in  the  Revolution,  are  well  brought  out  in  Lincoln's  The 
Revolutionary  Movement  in  Pennsylvania  (University  of  Pennsyl 
vania  Studies.  1901);  and  Henry's  Patrick  Henry,  3  vols.  1891. 
The  letters,  journals,  and  papers  of  leading  Americans  in  the  Revo 
lution  have  been  very  fully  printed.  The  ablest  of  the  radicals  was 
John  Adams  (Works  of  John  Adams,  10  vols.  1856);  Franklin  be 
came  increasingly  radical  with  the  progress  of  events  (Writings  of 


THE  WINNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE    275 

Benjamin  Franklin,  10  vols.  1905-07) ;  Dickinson  was  the  ablest  of 
the  conservatives  who  joined  the  Revolution,  but  with  great 
reluctance  (Writings  of  John  Dickinson,  3  vols.  1895);  the  extreme 
conservative  and  Loyalist  view  is  best  represented  by  Hutchinson 
(Diary  and  Letters  of  Thomas  Hutchinson,  2  vols.  1884).  For  the 
period  of  the  war  perhaps  the  most  illuminating  writings  of  all  are 
the  letters  of  Washington  (The  Writings  of  George  Washington 
U  vols.  1889-93). 


GENERAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

A  BRIEF  LIST  OF  BOOKS  FOR  THE  STUDY 
OF  COLONIAL  HISTORY 

1.  Adams,  J.   Familiar  Letters  of  John  Adams  and  His 
Wife  Abigail  Adams.  Boston,  1875. 

2.  Andrews,  C.  M.    The    Colonial    Period.     New    York, 
1912. 

3.  Beer,  G.  L.   The  Origins  of  the  British  Colonial  System, 

1578-1660.  New  York,  1908. 
The  Old  Colonial  System,  1660-17 '54.  Part 

I.    The  Establishment  of  the  System, 

1660-1688.  2  vols.  New  York,  1912. 
British  Colonial  Policy,  1754-1765.   New 

York,  1907. 

4.  Bruce,  P.  A.   The  Economic  History  of  Virginia.    % 
vols.  New  York,  1896. 

5.  Channing,  E.  History  of  the  United  States.  Vols.  i-iil. 
New  York,  1905-1912. 

6.  Eggleston,  E.   The  Beginners  of  America.    Philadel 

phia,  1897. 

The  Transit  of  Civilization.    Philadel 
phia,  1901. 

7.  Ellis,  G.  E.    The  Puritan  Age  and  Rule  in  the  Colony  of 
Massachusetts  Bay,  1629-1685.  Boston,  1888. 

8.  Fisher,  S.  G.    The  Struggle  for  American  Independence. 
2  vols.  Philadelphia,  1908. 

9.  Fiske,  J.   The  Discovery  of  America.    2  vols.    Boston, 

1893. 
The  Beginnings  of  New  England.  Boston, 

1892. 
Old  Virginia  and  Her  Neighbours.  2  vols. 

Boston,  1897. 


278  GENERAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The   Dutch   and   Quaker   Colonies.     %   vols. 

Boston,  1900. 
New  France  and  New  England.  Boston,  1902. 

10.  Ford,  P.  L.   The  True  George  Washington.    Philadel 
phia,  1897. 

11.  Franklin,  B.    The  Life  of  Benjamin  Franklin  Written  by 
Himself.  3  vols.  Philadelphia,  1881. 

12.  Hart,  A.  B.  American  History  Told  by  Contemporaries. 
4  vols.  New  York,  1887. 

13.  Hart,  A.  B.   The  American   Nation.    27   vols.    New 
York,  1904-1907  (first  nine  volumes). 

14.  Henry,  W.  W.  Patrick  Henry;  Life,   Correspondence, 
and  Speeches.  3  vols.  New  York,  1891. 

15.  Hutchinson,  P.  O.  Diary  and  Letters  of  Thomas  Hutch- 
inson.  2  vols.  Boston,  1884. 

16.  Jameson,  J.  F.   Original  Narratives  of  Early  American 
History.   15  vols.   New  York,  1906-1914.    (Especially 
valuable  are  the  following:  Bourne,  E.  G.   The  North 
men,  Columbus,  and  Cabot;  Hosmer,  J.  K.   Winthrop's 
Journal.   2  vols.;  Davis,  W.  T.   Bradford's  History  of 
Plymouth  Plantation;  Burr,  G.  L.    Narratives  of  the 
Witchcraft  Cases.) 

17.  Lecky,  W.  E.  H.   The    American    Revolution.      New 
York,  1912. 

18.  MacDonald,  W.   Select  Charters  and  Other  Documents. 
New  York,  1906. 

19.  Osgood,  H.  L.    The  American  Colonies  in  the  17th  Cen 
tury.  3  vols.  New  York,  1904-1907. 

20.  Parkman,  F.   Frontenac    and   New    France.     Boston. 

1877. 
Half  Century  of  Conflict.  2  vols.  Boston. 

1892. 
Montcalm  and  Wolfe.  2  vols.  Boston, 

1891. 

21.  Trevelyan,  G.  O.   The  American  Revolution.    4  vols. 
New  York,  1905-07. 

22.  Tyler,  M.  C.    The  Literary  History  of  the  American 
Revolution.  2  vols.  New  York,  1897. 


GENERAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

23.  Walker,  W.  History  of  Congregationalism  in  America 
New  York,  1899. 

24.  Weeden,  W.  B.    The  Economic  and  Social  History  of 
New  England.  2  vols.  Boston,  1890. 

25.  Wells,  W.  V.    The  Life  and  Public  Services  of  Samuel 
Adams.  2  vols.  Boston,  1865. 

26.  Wendell,  B.   Cotton  Mather.  New  York.  1891. 


INDEX 


Abraham,  Plains  of,  159. 

Account  of  the  Province  of  Penn 
sylvania,  William  Perm's,  134. 

Acts  of  Trade.  See  Navigation 
Acts. 

Adams,  John,  social  rank,  166; 
influenced  by  English  writers, 
171;  religious  ideas,  197;  de 
mands  a  "more  equal  lib 
erty,"  202,  240;  on  the  Stamp 
Act,  221,  225;  defends  officers 
concerned  in  the  "Massacre," 
230;  complains  of  desertion 
by  the  people,  231;  dines  with 
the  Sons  of  Liberty,  238;  op 
position  to  the  Hutchinsons 
and  Olivers,  243;  in  the  First 
Continental  Congress,  246; 
urges  a  declaration  of  inde 
pendence,  251;  negotiator  of 
Treaty  of  1783,  271. 

Adams,  Samuel,  opposes  Sugar 
Act,  218;  and  the  Stamp  Act, 
220;  deserted  by  his  friends, 
231;  promotes  patriotic  meet 
ings,  238;  in  the  First  Conti 
nental  Congress,  245;  one  of 
earliest  to  desire  independ 
ence,  248. 

Aden,  15. 

Admiralty  courts,  established, 
145,  146;  fall  under  control  of 
assemblies,  151;  jurisdiction 
extended,  208. 

Africa,  17,  18,  168. 

Aggawam,  Cobler  of,  65. 

Albany,  Congress  of.    See  Con- 

Albemarle  Sound,  129. 
Albuquerque,  27. 
Alexandria,  5. 


Allyon,  32. 

Almon,  John,  231. 

Alva,  Duke  of,  37. 

Amboina,  27. 

America,  Hakluyt's  account  of, 
47. 

American  Whig  Society  at 
Princeton,  194. 

Amherst,  Jeffrey,  210. 

Amsterdam,  37. 

Amusements  in  Massachusetts, 
laws  against,  116. 

Anabaptists,  108. 

Andros,  Sir  Edmund,  132,  145. 

Androscoggin,  175. 

Anglican  Church,  established  in 
Massachusetts,  122;  frontier 
communities  opposed  to,  183; 
disestablished  in  Virginia, 
241. 

Anglican  episcopate,  fear  of, 
190,  196. 

Annapolis,  273. 

Anti-ministerial  spirit  in  Massa 
chusetts,  119. 

Antioch,  5. 

Antwerp,  6,  36,  37. 

Arabia,  13. 

Arianism  in  New  England,  189. 

Aristocracy,  in  Virginia,  72;  and 
colonial  politics,  165;  in  Mas 
sachusetts,  168;  frontier  com 
munities  opposed  to,  182;  the 
Revolution  a  movement  in 
opposition  to,  240. 

Aristotle,  23. 

Armada,  defeat  of  the,  43. 

"Armed  neutrality,"  270. 

Arminianism  in  New  England, 
189. 

Army,  the  Revolutionary,  char- 


11 


INDEX 


acter  of,  254,  255,  259;  sup 
plied  from  Virginia,  262; 
causes  of  weakness  of,  263;  at 
titude  toward /Congress,  263, 
264;  frontier 'troops  in,  265, 
268;  FrencK  troops  cooperate 
with,  269;  willing  to  make 
Washington  king,  273. 

Arnold,  Benedict,  268,  269. 

"Art  of  Virtue,"  Franklin's 
idea  of  religion  as  the,  198. 

Articles  of  Confederation,  252, 
264. 

Asia,  relation  between  Europe 
and,  1,  7,  10-12,  16. 

Assembly.   See  Government. 

Assiento,  the,  150. 

Assistants,  Board  of.  See  Gov 
ernment,  Massachusetts. 

Associated  Loyalists,  268. 

Association  of  the  First  Conti 
nental  Congress,  247;  creates 
the  Loyalist  party,  247,  248; 
why  conservatives  voted  for, 
250.  See  Non-importation 
agreements. 

Atlantis,  23. 

Augsburg,  6. 

Austin,  Anne,  108. 

Austrian  Succession,  War  of  the, 
203. 

Azores,  168. 

Back  country.   See  Frontier. 

Backwoodsmen.   See  Frontier. 

Bacon,  Francis,  38,  197. 

Bacon,  Nathaniel,  76,  79,  80. 

Bacon,  Roger,  23. 

Bagdad,  5. 

Bahamas,  the,  128. 

Balance  of  trade.   See  Trade. 

Balboa,  28. 

Baltimore,  Lord,  64-66,  146. 

Banda,  27. 

Barbados,  108,  128,  129,  138. 

Barcelona,  6. 

Ban-owe,  Henry,  88. 

Basle,  6. 


Beckford,  William,  149. 

Bellamy,  Rev.  Mr.,  185. 

Bellomont,  Earl  of,  141.  148. 

Berkeley,  George,  171. 

Berkeley,  John,  Lord,  132,  133. 

Berkeley,  Sir  William,  30,  76,  79. 

Berkshires,  179. 

Bernard,  Gov.  Francis,  203;  ad 
vises  remodeling  colonial  gov 
ernments,  206;  opposes  Gren- 
ville's  measures,  208,  218;  on 
the  Virginia  Resolutions,  241. 

Bible  Commonwealth,  ideal  of  a, 
112  jf.  See  Massachusetts  Bay. 

Bienville,  Celoron  de,  154,  156. 

Bills  of  credit.   See  Currency. 

Blair,  Rev.  Samuel,  189. 

Bland,  Richard,  228. 

Blathwayt,  William,  77. 

Blue  Ridge  Mountains,  176, 179. 

Board  of  Trade,  created,  145; 
system  for  colonial  control, 
146;  advises  recall  of  charters, 
146;  decline  of  influence,  148; 
and  the  establishment  of  a 
civil  list,  164;  prepares  scheme 
for  colonial  defense,  212. 

"Body  of  Liberties,"  99. 

Bokhara,  5. 

Bolingbroke,  Henry  St.  John, 
Viscount,  126,  171. 

Boonesboro,  265. 

Bordentown,  256. 

Borderers.   See  Frontier. 

Boston,  95,  109,  120,  168. 

Boston  Church,  102,  119,  122. 

Boston  "Massacre,"  226,  230. 

Boston  Port  Bill,  234. 

"Boston  Seat,"  234. 

Boston  "Tea  Party,"  233. 

Boundaries,  established  by  the 
Treaty  of  1783,  271. 

Bourgeois,  the,  81  jf. 

"Brace  of  Adamses,"  243. 

Braddock  expedition,  157. 

Bradford,  William,  65,  90,  113. 

Bradstreet,  Governor  of  Massa 
chusetts  Bay,  121. 


INDEX 


m 


Brandywine,  battle  of,  257. 
Brewster,  William,  88. 
Bristol,  223. 

Browne,  Robert,  87,  88,  101. 
Brownists,  87  ff. 
Bruges,  6. 

Buccaneers,  41,  140. 
Bullion.   See  Precious  metals. 
Burgesses,  the  Virginia  House  of, 

75 /. 

Burgoyne's  expedition,  256,  257. 
Burnaby,  Richard,  161,  162. 
Bute,  John  Stuart,  Earl  of,  206. 
Byllinge,  Edward,  133. 
Byrd,  the  first  William,  73,  76, 

175;  the  second  William,  167; 

the  third  William,  170,  176, 

185. 

Cabot,  39. 

Cadamosto,  21. 

Cadiz,  44,  150. 

Cahokia,  153,  266. 

Cairo,  5. 

Calicut,  5. 

Cam,  Diego,  21. 

Cambulac,  8. 

Camden,  settlement  of,  153. 

Camden,  Lord,  223. 

Canada.  See  France  in  America. 

Cape  Fear,  128. 

Cape  Non,  18. 

Cape  of  Good  Hope,  22. 

Carolinas,  founding  of  the,  128 

ff.  See  North  Carolina;  South 

Carolina. 

Carpenter's  Hall,  245. 
Carpini,  9. 
Cartagena,  43. 

Carteret,  Sir  George,  132,  133. 
Cartier,  Jacques,  39. 
Cathay,  10. 

Cavalier  migration,  72. 
Cavendish,  45. 
Ceuta,  20. 
Ceylon,  8. 
Chalons,  6. 
Champlain,  45. 


Charlemagne,  2. 

Charles  I,  63,  86,  90,  91. 

Charles  II,  125,  127. 

Charles  V,  28,  34. 

Charles  River,  128. 

Charleston,  152,  166,  232,  262. 

Charlestown,  95. 

Charlottesburg,  153. 

Charter,  of  Connecticut,  106;  of 
Massachusetts  Bay,  91,  96, 
106;  of  Virginia,  55,  58. 

Chartres,  Fort,  153. 

Chateaubriand,  epigram  on  the 
Revolution,  202. 

Chatham.  See  Pitt,  William. 

Cherokees.   See  Trade,  Indian. 

Cherry  Valley,  179. 

China,  5,  16. 

Chocktaws.   See  Trade,  Indian. 

Christmas  festivals  in  Massa 
chusetts,  116. 

Church,  the  Reformation  and 
the  Catholic,  80 /. 

Church  covenant,  96, 112,  114. 

City  of  God,  Puritan  ideal  of 
the,  84. 

Civic  virtue,  religion  identified 
with,  194;  Revolutionary 
philosophy  influenced  by  clas 
sic  ideal  of,  239. 

Clarendon,  Earl  of,  128. 

Clark,  George  Rogers,  265-67. 

Class  conflict  in  the  Revolution, 
240. 

Classes.   See  Social  conditions. 

Clergy.  See  Massachusetts  Bay. 

Clinton,  Sir  Henry,  succeeds 
Howe,  policy  of  raids,  261 ;  ex 
pedition  to  South  Carolina, 
262;  driven  out  of  North 
Carolina,  268;  orders  Corn- 
wallis  to  fortify  Yorktown,269. 

Cliosophic  Society  at  Princeton, 
194. 

Coddington,  William,  103. 

Coercive  Acts,  233,  234. 

Colden,  Cadwallader,  208,  217, 
221. 


IV 


INDEX 


Coligny's  colony  destroyed,  39. 

Colleton,  Sir  John,  128. 

Colonial  control,  English  sys 
tem  of,  established,  134,  145, 
146;  in  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury,  147;  attitude  of  Walpole 
and  Newcastle  toward,  151; 
effect  of  Austrian  war  on,  152; 
frontier  defense  and,  154; 
Seven  Years'  War  proves  in 
adequacy  of,  157;  new  policy 
of,  203;  effect  of  Seven  Years' 
War  on,  214;  opposition  to 
Grenville's  policy  of,  215  ff.; 
effect  of  tea  episode  on  policy 
of,  233.  See  Defense. 

Colonial  government.  See  Gov 
ernment- 
Colonial  governors.  See  Gover 
nors. 

Colonial  Manufactures  Act,  151 . 

Colonial  rights,  Franklin  on, 
202;  Bernard  contrasts  Eng 
lish  and  American  ideas  of, 
203;  Stamp  Act  raises  ques 
tion  of,  214;  the  Townshend 
Acts  and,  227;  apparent  set 
tlement  of  dispute  over,  231 ; 
revived  by  the  Coercive  Acts, 
234;  fundamental  reasons  for 
dispute  over,  234;  breach 
widened  by  every  discussion 
of,  237;  influence  of  classic 
ideals  on  patriot  ideas  of,  239 ; 
religious  spirit  characterizes 
patriot  conception  of,  240; 
class  struggle  in  America  ac 
centuated  by  dispute  over, 
240;  unfranchised  classes  ac 
tive  in  the  defense  of,  244; 
effect  of  the  Revolutionary 
war  on  the  question  of,  267. 

Colonies,  begin  to  be  valuable, 
127;  important  for  English 
trade,  137;  special  value  of 
the  plantation  type  of,  138. 

Colonization  of  America,  mo 
tives  leading  to  the,  46,  66-68, 


70,  86,  89-94,  113,  118,  128, 
130-34,  177;  revival  of  inter 
est  in  the,  126;  effect  of  civil 
war  on,  127;  decline  of  inter 
est  in,  147. 

Columbus,  Bartholomew,  27. 

Columbus,  Christopher,  1,  2, 
22-26. 

Commerce.  See  Trade. 

Commercial  code.  See  Colonial 
control. 

Commission  merchants,  em 
ployed  by  Southern  planters, 
167. 

Commissioners,  Board  of,  226. 

Commissioners  of  peace,  261. 

Committees  of  the  Association, 
247. 

Committees  of  Trade  and  Plan 
tations,  140. 

Communication.  See  Inter 
course. 

Company  of  Massachusetts 
Bay.  See  Massachusetts  Bay. 

Conciliation,  conservatives  hope 
for,  249;  North's  Resolutions 
of,  250;  patriots  renounce 
hope  of,  251 ;  renewed  offer  of, 
261. 

Concord,  175. 

Congress,  Albany,  156-58,  204, 
212;  First  Continental,  234, 
245,  250;  Second  Continental, 
influenced  by  reports  from 
England,  250;  issues  paper 
money,  259,  260;  moves  to 
Baltimore,  255;  influence  de 
clines,  262;  relations  with 
army  and  State  Governments, 
264;  adopts  Articles  of  Con 
federation,  264;  ratifies  treaty 
of  peace,  272;  receives  resig 
nation  of  Washington,  273. 

Congress,  Stamp  Act,  218. 

Connecticut,  founded,  104;  New 
Haven  united  to,  106;  takes 
initiative  in  forming  New 
England  Confederation,  106, 


INDEX 


107;  frontier  settlements  in 
174;  "consociation"  in,  190, 
195. 

Conquistadores,  31. 
Conservative  party.   See  Party 
"Consociation"  in  Connecticut, 
190,  195. 

Constantinople,  1,  5. 

Constitution.  See  Articles  of 
Confederation;  State  Govern 
ments. 

Cooper,  Anthony  Ashley,  127. 

Cornwallis,  Charles,  defeated  by 
Washington,  256;  in  North 
Carolina,  269;  surrenders  at 
Yorktown,  270. 

Coronado,  33. 

Cortez,  Bernando,  32. 

Cor  vino,  John  de,  9. 

Cotton,  John,  90,  93,  102,  115, 
120. 

Council.   See  Government. 

Council  of  Trent,  35. 

Counter-Reformation,  35. 

Country  gentry,  82. 

Courts,  effect  of  Stamp  Act  on, 
221,  222. 

Covenant,  the  Church,  96,  112, 
114;  Half- Way,  188,  195. 

"Cowpens,"  176. 

Cowpens,  battle  of,  269. 

Coxe,  Daniel,  218. 

Cozumel,  32. 

Creeks.   See  Trade,  Indian. 

Cromwell,  and  the  colonies,  107, 
127. 

Crown  Point,  159. 

Crowns  of  St. Louis,  the  gold,  13. 

Cruger,  John,  167. 

Crusades,  the,  4. 

Cuba,  25,  52. 

Currency,  use  of  paper,  208; 
English  Government  restricts 
paper,  209;  opposition  to 
Currency  Act,  215-18;  specie 
diminished  by  Sugar  Act,  216; 
Grenville's  measures  increase 
demand  for  specie,  217;  New 


York  permitted  to  issue  Bills 
of  Credit,  230;  French  loans 
finance  the  war,  259;  Conti 
nental  Congress  issues  paper, 
259. 

Gushing,  Charles,  197. 

Customs,  144,  205, 207, 208, 222. 

Cuzaco,  34. 

D'Abreu,  27. 

D'Ailly,  Pierre,  23. 

Dale,  Sir  Thomas,  60,  68. 

"Dale's  Laws,"  60. 

Damascus,  5. 

Dancing,  forbidden  in  Massa 
chusetts,  116. 

Dartmouth,  Lord,  approves 
Galloway's  plan,  246. 

Davenport,  John,  93,  105. 

Davies,  Rev.  Samuel,  185-87. 

Davis,  John,  45. 

Debtor  class.  See  Social  condi 
tions. 

Declaration  of  Independence. 
See  Independence. 

Declaratory  Act,  224,  225. 

Defense,  system  of,  145,  152, 
155 ;  colonial  troops  raised  for, 
159;  apathy  of  assemblies  in 
matter  of,  164;  French  wars 
and,  204,  205;  Grenville's  pol 
icy  of,  209,  213;  Board  of 
Trade's  scheme  for,  212;  con 
quest  of  Canada  removes 
need  for,  214,  215.  See  Colo 
nial  control. 

De  Grasse,  Count,  269,  270. 

De  la  War,  Lord,  60. 

Demarcation  Line,  26,  28. 

Democracy.  See  Frontier;  Co 
lonial  rights. 

Deputies.   See  Government. 

De  Soto,  33. 

Detroit,  153,  265,  266. 

Diaz,  Bartholomew,  22. 

Diaz,  Denis,  21. 

Dickinson,  John,  219,  220,  227, 
228,  242. 


VI 


INDEX 


Dinwiddie,  Robert,  157. 

Discourse  of  a  North  West  Pas 
sage,  30. 

Discourse  on  Western  Plantinge, 
46. 

Discovery  of  America,  25  Jf . 

Distilling,  168,  216. 

Dongan,  Thomas,  132, 144, 154. 

Dorchester,  95,  104. 

Doria,  Tedisio,  18. 

Drake,  Sir  Francis,  42-44. 

"Drowned  lands"  of  the  Wa- 
bash,  266. 

Ducats,  first  appearance  of, 
13. 

Dudley,  Thomas,  93,  120. 

"Duke's  Laws,"  131. 

Dulaney,  Daniel,  217,  220,  223. 

Duquesne,  Fort,  157,  159. 

Durham  Palatinate,  64. 

Durham,  Town  of,  175. 

Dutch,  the,  36;  India  companies 
of,  44,  45;  threaten  Connecti 
cut,  106;  driven  from  New 
Netherland,  130,  131;  Eng 
lish  rivalry  with,  136. 

Dyre,  William,  144. 

Eannes,  Gil,  21. 

East  India  Company,  English, 
45,  53;  influence  in  Parlia 
ment,  149;  exports  tea  to 
America,  231-33;  Parliament 
demands  compensation  for, 
234. 

East  Indies,  English  interest  in 
the,  136. 

Eaton,  Theophilus,  105. 

Ecclesiastical  Polity,  61. 

Economic  changes,  thirteenth 
to  sixteenth  century,  48. 

Eden,  Richard,  45. 

Edict  of  Restitution,  86. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  85,  123, 
187. 

Effingham,  Sir  Thomas  Howard 
of,  44. 

Elizabeth,  39,  90. 


Ellsworth,  Oliver,  194. 

Emanuel,  King  of  Portugal,  26, 

Endicott,  John,  91. 

English  Government,  attitude 
toward  the  colonies,  127,  134 
/.,  148  jf.,  163,  169;  frontier 
policy  of,  178;  new  colonial 
policy,  203,  204;  new  meas 
ures  for  defense,  209;  effect  of 
tea  episode  on,  233-34;  offers 
conciliation,  250;  effect  of  the 
French  alliance  on,  260  jf. 
See  Colonial  control. 

Engrossers  of  land,  176,  179. 

Entail,  abolished  in  Virginia, 
241. 

Enumerated  commodities,  139, 
140. 

Eratosthenes,  17. 

Escheator  in  Virginia,  office  of, 
77. 

Escobar,  21. 

"External"  taxes,  227. 

"Fall  Line,"  176. 

Farmer's  Letters,  227. 

Fenwick,  John,  133. 

Ferguson,  General,  268. 

Feudal  regime,  3. 

Fisher,  Mary,  108. 

Fisheries,  39,  122,  137, 168,  216, 

271. 
Five  Nations.   See  Indians,  Iro- 

quois. 
Flags  of  truce,  used  by  illicit 

traders,  205. 
Flint,  Rev.  Mr..  120. 
Florida,  32,  33. 

Florin,  first  appearance  of,  13. 
Forestalls  of  land,  176,  179. 
Fort  Chartres,  153. 
Fort  Duquesne,  157,  159. 
Fort  Frontenac,  142. 
Fort  Moore,  152,  153. 
Fort  Necessity,  157. 
Fort  St.  Louis,  143. 
Fort  Stanwix,  Treaty  of,  211. 
Fort  Washington,  255. 


INDEX 


VI 1 


Pox,  Charles  James,  237. 

Foxe's  Book  of  Martyrs,  88. 

France  in  America,  Coligny  and 
Cartier,  39;  Champlain,  45; 
exploration  of  the  Great 
Lakes,  141 ;  of  the  Mississippi, 
143;  occupation  of  the  interior 
waterways,  152;  contest  for 
the  Ohio  Valley,  154;  loss  of 
Canada,  159. 

Francis  I,  38,  39. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  161;  influ 
enced  by  English  writers,  170, 
171;  religious  ideas  of,  198; 
on  colonial  rights,  202;  drafts 
Albany  Plan  of  Union,  204; 
defends  paper  money,  208; 
favors  Board  of  Trade's  plan 
for  defense,  212 ;  opposes 
Stamp  Act,  213;  examination 
in  House  of  Commons,  224, 
227;  becomes  more  radical, 
228;  residence  in  England 
strengthens  his  patriotism, 
235;  thinks  England  will 
yield,  249;  in  France,  258; 
protests  against  separate  ne 
gotiations  with  England,  271. 

Fraunce's  Tavern,  273. 

Freemen,  99,  132,  173. 

French  alliance,  resolution  of 
Congress  in  favor  of,  252;  ne 
gotiated,  258,  259;  impor 
tance  of,  259  /. 

French  and  Indian  War.  See 
Seven  Years'  War. 

French  West  Indies,  151,  259. 

Friends.    See  Quakers. 

Frontenac,  Count,  141. 

Frontenac,  Fort,  142. 

Frontier,  in  Virginia,  78,  79;  in 
Massachusetts,  115,  116,  155; 
in  Carolina,  129;  west  of  the 
Alleghanies,  153;  importance 
of,  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
174,  182,  184;  foreigners  settle 
on  the,  177;  Grenville's  pol 
icy  for  the  defense  of  the,  209, 


210,  215,  217;  radicalism  of 
the,  241;  Revolution  sup 
ported  by  the,  265,  268. 
Treaty  of  1783  and  the,  271. 

Fundamental  Constitutions  of 
Carolina,  129. 

Fur  trade.  See  Trade,  Indian. 

Galloway,  Joseph,  217,  245,  246. 

Gama,  Vasco  da,  1,  26. 

Gates,  General  Horatio,  257. 

Gates,  Sir  Thomas,  56,  59. 

General  writs,  207. 

Geneva,  119. 

Genoa,  6,  9. 

"Gentle  folk"  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  173. 

Gentlemen  Adventurers,  46. 

George  III,  225,  270. 

Georgia,  occupied  by  the  Brit 
ish,  262. 

Germans,  153,  177,  242. 

Germantown,  founded,  178; 
battle  of,  257. 

Gibraltar,  6. 

Gilbert,  Sir  Humphrey,  30,  54. 

Gilds,  82,  83,  87. 

Gist,  Christopher,  154,  181. 

Glasgow,  223. 

Godolphin,  Sidney,  126. 

Gold.   See  Precious  metals. 

Gold  Coast,  20. 

Golden  Hind,  43. 

Gomez,  32. 

Good  Hope,  Cape  of,  22. 

Gorges,  Fernando,  56,  57,  64. 

Gorton,  Samuel,  65. 

Gosnold,  Bartholomew,  55. 

Government,  colonial,  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  163;  con 
trolled  by  the  "best  people," 
169;  unequal  representation 
in  assemblies,  183;  French 
wars  strengthen  assemblies, 
205;  plans  for  remodeling, 
206;  dispute  with  England 
opens  way  for  democratiza 
tion  of,  227,  240,  247,  262; 


vm 


INDEX 


effect  of  the  war  on,  267,  268. 
See  Massachusetts,  Virginia, 
etc. 

Governors,  colonial,  147,  151, 
152,  207. 

Grand  Khan,  10. 

Graves,  Admiral,  270. 

Great  Awakening,  the,  181, 186, 
193. 

Great  Barrington,  175. 

Green  Bay,  153. 

Greene,  Nathaniel,  269. 

Greenwood,  John,  88. 

Grenville,  George,  colonial  pol 
icy  of,  203  jf . ;  opposition  to 
the  measures  of,  215  jf.;  op 
poses  repeal  of  Stamp  Act, 
223;  epigram  on  loss  of  the 
colonies  by,  235. 

Grosseilliers,  141. 

Guilford  Court-House,  battle  of, 
269. 

Guinea,  Gulf  of,  20,  21. 

Hakluyt,  Richard,  30,  46,  56. 

Half-Way  Covenant,  188,  195. 

Halifax,  Earl  of,  204. 

Hall,  William,  238. 

Hamburg,  6. 

Hamilton,  Henry,  265,  266. 

Hampden  Court  Conference,  86. 

Hanbury,  John,  154. 

Hancock,  John,  231,  243. 

Hanover  County,  Virginia,  186. 

Harley,  Robert,  126. 

Harrington,  James,  influence  on 
Locke,  129. 

Harris,  Mary,  at  White  Wo 
man's  Creek,  181. 

Harrison,  Nathaniel,  78. 

Hartford,  104. 

Harvard  College,  120,  122,  123, 
169. 

Haversham,  Lord,  125. 

Hawkins,  John,  41. 

Haynes,  John,  104. 

Hayti,  25. 

Head  right,  68. 


Hendrick,  Iroquois  chief,  156. 

Henry,  Patrick,  born  on  frontier, 
176;  influenced  by  Samuel 
Davies,  193;  opposes  Stamp_ 
Act,  219,_220l  .24Tfln  the 
Fiirsl'^Continental  Congress, 
245;  eager  for  independence, 
248;  Governor  of  Virginia, 
authorizes  the  Clark  expedi 
tion,  266. 

Henry  the  Navigator,  Prince, 
20,  21. 

Hillsborough,  town  of,  153. 

Hinsdale,  town  of,  175. 

Hippon,  Captain,  45. 

Hispaniola,  32. 

Hojeda,  26. 

Home  rule.  See  Colonial  rights. 

Honduras,  Bay  of,  explored,  26. 

Hooker,  Richard,  Ecclesiastical 
Polity,  61. 

Hooker,  Thomas,  founder  of 
Connecticut,  93,  104,  105. 

Hormos  (modern  Orrnuz),  8,  15. 

Housatonic  settlements,  174,175. 

Howe,  Sir  William,  254-57,  260, 
261. 

Hudson,  Henry,  45. 

Hudson  River  settlements,  131. 

Huguenots,  130,  132,  177. 

Hunter,  Robert,  178. 

Hutchinson,  Anne,  101,  108, 
109,  116. 

Hutchinson,  Thomas,  170;  op 
poses  Grenville's  measures, 
217;  but  regards  them  as  le 
gal,  219;  property  of,  de 
stroyed  by  mob,  221;  refuses 
clearance  to  the  tea  ships,  233; 
letters  published,  233;  effect 
of  exile  on,  235;  disliked  by 
John  Adams,  243,  244;  thinks 
Boston  has  gone  mad,  245. 

Ilkhans  of  Persia,  15,  16. 
Illicit  trade.   See  Trade. 
Immigration.      See     Germans; 
Scotch-Irish. 


INDEX 


IX 


Imperial  Defense.    See  Defense. 

Independence,  predicted,  215; 
desired  by  some  in  1774,  £45; 
but  not  generally  desired  be 
fore  1776,  248,  249;  Lee  and 
Adams  lead  the  movement 
for,  251;  Lee  introduces  reso 
lution  for,  252;  significance 
of  the  Declaration  of,  253;^ 
acknowledged  by  England, 
271. 

India,  5,  8,  13-17,  236. 

Indian  presents,  155. 

Indian  trade.  See  Trade,  In 
dian. 

Indians,  influence  on  colonists, 
79;  threaten  New  England, 
106;  massacres  inspired  at 
Quebec,  145;  Iroquois,  144, 
145,  155,  157,  211;  Pontiac's 
conspiracy,  211;  employed  by 
British  in  Revolution,  265. 

Indigo,  166. 

Industry.   See  Trade. 

"  Inner  Light."   See  Quakers. 

Intellectual  conditions,  161, 169, 
170,  175,  180/.,  184 /. 

Intercourse,  with  England,  169; 
intercolonial,  184,  190. 

"Interests,"  political  term,  166. 

"Interlopers,"  East  Indian,  140 

"Internal"  taxes,  227. 

Intolerable  Acts,  233,  234. 

Introduction  to  Cosmography, 
Waldseemiiller's,  27. 

Iron  manufactures,  151. 

Iroquois.   See  Indians. 

Isabella,  24. 

Italian  cities,  1,  5,  6,  18. 

Jaffa,  5. 

Jamaica,    127,    135,    138,    140, 

149-50. 

James  I,  62,  86,  90. 
James  II,  145. 
Jamestown,  58,  75. 
Jarrett,  Devereaux,  172. 
Jay,  John,  271. 


Jefferson,  Peter,  176. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  born  on 
frontier,  176;  opposed  to  tide 
water  aristocracy,  182;  leader 
of  radical  party  in  Virginia, 
241. 

Jenghis  Khan,  7. 

Jenyns,  Soame,  2.?5,  2iO. 

Jesuits,  35,  40,  142. 

John  of  Good  Memory,  King  of 
Portugal,  19. 

Johnson,  Samuel,  202,  239. 

Johnson,  Sir  William,  157. 

Johnstone,  "Governor,"  261. 

Joint-stock  company,  rise  of  the, 
53 /. 

Joint-stock  regime  in  Virginia, 
58,  68. 

Judges,  control  of,  164. 

Kalm,  Peter,  162,  165,  191,  215. 
Kaskaskia,  153,  266. 
Kentucky  settlements,  267. 
King  George's  War,  152. 
"King's  Friends,"  270. 
King's  Mountain,  battle  of,  268. 
Kublai  Khan,  7,  8. 

Lafayette,  269,  270. 

Land,  grants  in  Virginia,  70,  77, 
167;  in  Massachusetts,  95;  in 
the  Carolinas,  129;  in  New 
York,  131;  in  the  Ohio  Valley, 
154,  209;  in  Pennsylvania, 
178;  in  Maryland,  179;  im 
portance  of  free  land  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  174  ff.; 
Proclamation  of  1763  restricts 
grants  of,  211;  cession  of 
Western,  265. 

Landowners,  influence  legisla 
tion,  183. 

Laodicea,  5. 

La  Salle,  143. 

Laud,  William,  64,  91,  106. 

Laurens,  of  South  Carolina,  166, 
269. 

Laurentian  Portolano,  18. 


X 


INDEX 


Lawyers,  and  the  Stamp  Act, 
221. 

Lay  religious  societies,  83. 

Lee,  Richard  Henry,  influenced 
by  the  classics,  239;  thinks 
England  will  yield,  249;  in 
troduces  resolutions  of  inde 
pendence,  251,  252;  influence 
declines,  254. 

Leeds,  223. 

Legislation,  character  of  eight 
eenth-century  colonial,  164; 
representation  and,  228,  229. 

Leisler  Rebellion,  132. 

Leon,  Ponce  de,  32. 

Le  Ronde  Denys,  215. 

Levant,  1,  6,  11,  15,  17,  150. 

"Levelling  spirit  of  New  Eng 
land,"  feared  in  the  Middle 
colonies,  246;  strengthened 
by  the  Revolution,  244  /. 

Leverett,  Governor  of  Massa 
chusetts,  121. 

Lexington,  battle  of,  257. 

Ley  den,  89. 

Liberalism  in  Massachusetts, 
120,  122. 

Liberty.  See  Colonial  rights. 

Liberty  Boys,  268. 

Liberty  Pole  festivals,  238. 

Lincoln,  Benjamin,  262. 

Locke,  John,  129,  171,  172,  197. 

Log  College,  187,  189. 

Logstown,  154. 

London,  6,  37,  150,  223. 

London  Company,  56,  57. 

Londonderry,  180. 

Long  Island,  early  settlements 
on,  131;  battle  of,  254. 

Lords  of  Trade,  Committee  of 
the,  143,  145. 

Louis  XVI,  258,  259. 

Louisburg,  155,  159. 

Louisiana,  152. 

Louisville,  266. 

Low,  Isaac,  245. 

Loyalists.  See  Party. 

Lubec,  6. 


Luther,  Martin,  84,  110,  111. 
Lutherans  in  America,  180  jf. 
Luxuries  in  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury,  173. 
Lyons,  6. 

MacDougall,  Alexander,  238. 

Madeiras,  120. 

Madison,  James,  194. 

Magalhaes.  See  Magellan. 

Magellan,  28. 

Magistrates.   See  Government. 

Magnolia,  Cotton  Mather's, 
123. 

Maine,  57,  64,  174. 

Malacca,  Straits  of,  5,  8,  27. 

Manchester,  223. 

Manufactures.  See  Trade. 

Marcos,  Friar,  33. 

Marion,  Francis,  partisan  leader 
in  South  Carolina,  267. 

Marlborough,  Duke  of,  126. 

Marseilles,  6. 

Martin  Luther,  194. 

Martyr,  Peter,  34. 

Maryland,  proprietary  grant  of, 
64;  and  English  trade,  138; 
charter  recalled  and  restored, 
146;  quit-rents  in,  164;  social 
conditions  in,  166,  167;  forces 
cession  of  Western  lands,  265. 

Mason,  John,  57. 

Massachusetts  Bay,  grant  of 
territory,  57;  charter  of,  64; 
settlement  of,  90  f. ;  govern 
ment  of,  96  ff. ;  dissensions  in, 
100 /.;  and  the  New  England 
Confederation,  106;  relations 
with  the  Protectorate,  107; 
hangs  the  Quakers,  108  /.; 
ideals  of  the  founders,  112 jf.; 
growth  of  material  interests 
in,  120;  recall  of  the  charter, 
121 /.;  charter  of  1691,  146; 
repaid  for  conquest  of  Louis- 
burg,  155;  troops  raised  in  the 
Seven  Years'  War,  159;  rise 
of  Puritan  democracy  in,  194 


INDEX 


XI 


ff.\  paper  money  retired,  208; 
class  conflict  in,  242-44. 

Massacre  of  1622  in  Virginia,  62. 

Mather,  Cotton,  120,  123. 

Mather,  Increase,  120,  123. 

Mather,  Richard,  93,  120. 

Mayhew,  Jonathan,  220. 

Mediterranean.   See  Levant. 

Mendoza,  Cardinal,  23. 

Mendoza,  Governor  of  New 
Spain,  33. 

Mennonites,  180. 

Mercantile  theory,  48  ff . 

Merchant  marine,  125,  137. 

Merchants,  growing  influence  in 
Boston,  120;  colonial  system 
fashioned  to  suit  the  interests 
of  English,  134 /.;  trade  with 
France  during  war,  145;  colo 
nial  legislation  influenced  by, 
183.  See  Trade. 

Meuthen,  Treaty  of,  150. 

Mexico,  32,  33. 

Miami,  English  traders  on  the, 
154. 

Michilimackinac,  142,  144. 

Middle  colonies,  population  of, 
162;  extension  of  frontier  in, 
175  ff.;  North's  resolutions  of 
conciliation  and  the,  251; 
"levelling  spirit  of  New  Eng 
land"  feared  in  the,  246;  op 
posed  to  declaration  of  inde 
pendence  in  1776,  253. 

Middleton,  New  Jersey,  133. 

Milan,  6. 

Mississippi  Forts,  265,  266. 

Mississippi  River,  discovered, 
33;  explored,  143;  boundary 
of  the  United  States,  272.  See 
France  in  America. 

"Mohawks,"  233. 

Mohawk  Valley  settlements, 
131,  153,  179. 

Molasses  Act,  139,  151,  207. 

Moluccas,  5. 

Monasteries,  effect  of  destruc 
tion  of  the,  67. 


Mondo  novo,  27,  29. 

Money  Bills,  164. 

Mongols,  7,  15. 

Monmouth,  settled,  133;  battle 

of,  261. 
Monopoly,non-importation  and, 

229. 

Montcalm,  Marquis  de,  159. 
Montesquieu,  215. 
Montezuma,  32. 
Montreal,  39,  45,  142. 
Moodie,  Lady  Deborah,  116. 
Moors,  Prince  Henry  and  the, 

20. 

Moravians,  180,  186. 
Morgan,  Daniel,  265. 
Morris,  Robert,  254. 
Morristown  Heights,  256. 
Mount  Vernon,  274. 
Mutiny   Act,,j.extended   to   the 

colonies,  2l)K  reenacted,  224; 

causes  trouble  in  New  York, 

225,  226,  230. 

Narvaez,  33. 

National  state,  rise  of  central 
ized,  48 /. 

Nationality,  rise  of  sentiment  of, 
184  ff. ;  French  wars  develop, 
191;  Franklin  the  embodi 
ment  of,  199. 

Native-born  New  Englanders, 
first  generation  of,  117. 

Natural  rights,  172,  237. 

Naval  stores,  50. 

Navigation  Acts,  establishment 
of  system  of,  139  ff.;  Act  of 
1696,  145;  violation  of,  140, 
152;  how  regarded  on  the 
frontier,  184;  Molasses  Act, 
151,  207;  Sugar  Act,  207; 
modified  in  1766,  224;  peti 
tion  for  further  modification, 
225;  Board  of  Commissioners 
to  enforce,  226. 

Necessity,  Fort,  157. 

Netherlands.   See  Dutch. 

"Neulanders,"  177. 


Xll 


INDEX 


New  Brunswick,  191. 

"New  Castle  trade,"  137. 

Newcastle,  Duke  of,  149,  151, 
155. 

New  England,  named,  56;  land 
grants  in,  57;  and  the  English 
colonial  system,  138;  united 
under  Andros,  145;  conquers 
Louisburg,  155;  population  of, 
162;  social  conditions  in,  168 
jf.;  frontier  in,  174;  not  attrac 
tive  to  foreigners,  178;  reli 
gious  division  in,  189;  coast 
towns  raided,  262.  See  Massa 
chusetts  Bay. 

New  England  Confederation, 
106. 

New  England  Council,  57,  91. 

New  England  theology,  190. 

New  Hampshire,  57,  174,  179. 

New  Haven,  105,  107. 

New  Jersey,  132,  145,  146. 

"New  Light,"  188. 

New  Netherland,  45,  128,  131. 

New  Orleans,  152. 

New  Port,  103,  168. 

"New  Side,"  188. 

New  Spain,  31,  150. 

Newspapers,  191,  222. 

Newton,  Isaac,  126. 

Newtown,  104. 

New  York,  founded,  130;  an 
nexed  to  New  England,  132, 
145;  control  of  judges  in,  164; 
social  conditions  in,  167;  pa 
per  money  in,  208,  209;  avoid 
ed  by  foreign  settlers,  178; 
and  the  Restraining  Act,  226; 
riots  in,  226;  non-importation 
agreement  in,  229,  230;  per 
mitted  to  issue  bills  of  credit, 
230;  and  East  India  Company 
tea,  232,  233;  Howe  occupies 
the  city  of,  255;  war  condi 
tions  in,  268;  projected  attack 
on  the  city  of,  269;  evacu 
ated  by  British  and  Loyalists, 
272. 


Niagara,  153,  159. 
Nicolet,  Jean,  141 . 
Nicolls,  Col.  Richard,  131. 
Noel,  Martin,  135 /. 
Nombre  de  Dios,  43. 
Nonconformists,  87,  88,  90. 
Non-importation     agreements, 

221,  222,  229,  230,  246. 
North,  Lord,  230,  231,  250,  270. 
Northampton,  188. 
North  Carolina,  175,  269. 
Northwest,    conquest    of    the, 

265-67. 

Nova  Britannia,  67. 
Nova  Scotia,  122,  155. 

Oderic,  Friar  Beatus,  9. 

Ohio  Valley.  See  Frontier;  De 
fense. 

Old  colonial  system.  See  Colo 
nial  control. 

Oldham,  John,  104. 

"Old  Light,"  188. 

"Old  Side,"  188. 

Orient,  importance  of  the  rela 
tions  of  Europe  and  the,  1, 
4-7,  13. 

Oswego,  153,  154,  156, 157,  159. 

Otis,  James,  231,  237. 

Overpopulation  of  England,  col 
onization  and  the  belief  in,  67, 
138. 

Palatinate,  177. 

Paper  money.   See  Currency. 

Parliament.  See  English  Gov 
ernment. 

Particularism,  262,  263. 

Partridge,  Lieutenant-G  over  nor, 
148. 

Party:  the  Conservatives,  atti 
tude  toward  Stamp  Act,  222; 
and  the  Townshend  Acts,  227, 
229,  230;  and  the  tea  episode, 
232;  fear  the  growing  influ 
ence  of  lower  classes,  240  jf. ; 
tend  to  become  Loyalist,  244 ; 
in  the  First  Congress,  245  /.; 


INDEX 


xiu 


support  Galloway's  plan,  246; 
disappearance  of  the,  248  Jf . ; 
influence  in  forming  the  new 
state  constitutions,  263. 

the  Loyalists,  oppose  Gren- 
ville's  measures,  217;  in  the 
First  Congress,  245;  the  "As 
sociation"  creates  the  party 
of,  247  /.;  growth  of  the,  249 
ff.\  New  York  the  headquar 
ters  of,  255;  in  Philadelphia, 
259;  property  confiscated, 
259;  encouraged  by  the  con 
quest  of  South  Carolina,  262; 
take  part  in  the  war,  267,  268; 
ruined  by  the  Treaty  of  1783, 
271;  America  suffers  loss  by 
the  exile  of,  272. 

the  Radicals,  oppose  Stamp 
Act,  219  jf.;  organize  as  Sons 
of  Liberty,  222;  take  ad 
vanced  ground  on  the  Town- 
shend  Acts,  227-30;  active 
opposition  to  the  East  India 
Company's  tea  monopoly, 
232,  233;  aim  to  revolutionize 
colonial  governments,  240^.; 
control  First  Congress,  245  ff. ; 
establish  revolutionary  gov 
ernment,  247  ff.\  not  wholly 
satisfied  with  new  State  Gov 
ernments,  263. 

Pastorius,  Francis  Daniel,  178. 

Patent  for  Rhode  Island,  103. 

Peace  of  Paris,  of  1763,  effect  on 
colonial  policy  of  England, 
205;  of  1783,  provisions  of  the, 
270-72. 

Pegalotti,  9. 

Peking,  5,  8. 

Penn,  William,  133. 

Pennsylvania,  founded,  133; 
charter  annulled  and  restored, 
146;  taxation  of  proprietary 
estates  in,  164;  mecca  of  the 
Germans,  177;  and  of  the 
Scotch-Irish,  179;  Quaker 
government  opposed  by  west 


ern  counties  of,  242;  Loyalist 
stronghold,  259. 

Penry,  John,  88. 

Pepys,  Samuel,  125. 

Perestrello,  Felipe  Mofiiz  de,  22. 

Periwigs,  badge  of  "  gentle  folk," 
173,  174. 

Peru,  conquest  of,  34. 

Philadelphia,  growth  of,  162; 
Germans  land  at,  178;  First 
Congress  meets  in,  234;  taken 
by  Howe,  257;  evacuated  by 
Clinton,  261. 

Philip  II,  34-37. 

Philippine  Islands,  28. 

Philip's  War,  119. 

Phillips,  George,  98. 

"Philosophers,"  America  and 
the  French,  199,  200. 

Piedmont  of  Virginia,  179. 

Pine  Barrens,  179. 

Pinzon,  26,  28. 

Pioneers.   See  Frontier. 

Piquet,  Pere,  156. 

Piracy,  40,  146. 

Pitt,  William,  and  the  Seven 
Years'  War,  158  ff.;  opposes 
Stamp  Act,  223;  admires  pa 
pers  of  the  First  Congress, 
247. 

Pittsfield,  175. 

Pizarro,  Francisco,  34. 

Pizarro,  Hernando,  34. 

Plan  for  a  British-American 
Parliament,  Galloway's,  246. 

Plantation  type  of  colony.  See 
Colonial  control. 

Plantation  in  Virginia,  the,  70 
/.,  74,  166. 

Pliny,  13. 

Plymouth  colony,  57,  87,  107. 

Plymouth  Company,  56. 

Pola,  Marco,  8,  9. 

Politics.  See  Government- 
Party. 

Pope,  Alexander,  126,  170. 

Population,  of  the  colonies,  66, 
161,  162;  of  Virginia,  69,  71; 


XIV 


INDEX 


of  Massachusetts  Bay,  93;  of 
Carolina,  129,  130;  of  New 
York,  132;  of  Pennsylvania, 
134;  of  Louisiana,  152;  of  New 
France,  157;  German  and 
Scotch-Irish,  177. 

Porto  Rico,  32. 

Portsmouth,  103. 

Portugal,  19,  37,  150. 

Post  office  established  in  the 
colonies,  191. 

Potosi,  mines  of,  34. 

Pownall,  Governor  of  Massa 
chusetts,  158. 

Precious  metals,  European  in 
terest  in  Asia  largely  deter 
mined  by  the  desire  for,  10- 
14;  America  valuable  to  Spain 
because  of,  31  jf.;  important 
for  the  national  state  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  49  ff.  ;  flow 
into  England  from  Portugal 
and  the  West  Indies,  150; 
lack  of  specie  in  frontier  com 
munities,  183;  drain  of  specie 
leads  to  use  of  paper  money, 
208. 

Presbyterians  in  America,  180 
/.,  189,  190,  194. 

Prices,  14,  149. 

Prince,  Thomas,  188. 

Princeton    College,    184,    190, 


Privateers,  Elizabethan,  41  ff. 
Proclamation  of  1763,  210,  215, 

219. 
Proprietary  estates  in  Pennsyl 

vania,  taxation  of,  164. 
Proprietary  feudal  grant,  as  an 

instrument    of    colonization, 

54,  55. 

Protectorate,  127. 
Protestant    sects,    in    the    six 

teenth  century,   111;  on  the 

American  frontier,  185JF.;  ef 

fect  of  the  Great  Awakening 

on,  188  /. 
Protestantism;  European  origin 


of,  80/.;  in  England,  86; 
a  Church-State  incompatible 
with  the  principles  of,  110  ff. 

Providence,  founding  of,  103. 

Provincialism  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  170,  174. 

Ptolemaic  theory,  17. 

Puritanism,  origin  of,  80  jf.; 
conception  of  morals,  84;  in 
England,  86  jf.;  in  New  Eng 
land,  91  /.;  and  the  Massa 
chusetts  State  Church,  110/.; 
decline  of  the  rigid  ideals  of, 
122,  125;  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  168,  194. 

Purse,  control  of  the,  164. 

Quakers,  in  Massachusetts,  108 
Jf.;  in  New  Jersey  and  Penn 
sylvania,  133,  134;  indifferent 
to  defense  of  the  frontier,  157; 
control  Pennsylvania  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  167  jf.; 
Revolution  destroys  political 
power  of  the,  242. 

Quebec,  45,  159. 

Quincy,  Josiah,  230,  238,  239, 
249,  250. 

Quit-rents,  68,  77,  95,  164,  178. 

Radicals.  See  Party. 

Radisson,  141. 

Raids,  Clinton's  policy  of,  261  ff. 

Raleigh,  Sir  Waiter,  46,  54,  55, 

Rail,  Colonel.  256. 

Randolph,  Edward,  121. 

Randolph,  Peyton,  245. 

Receiver-general  of  the  customs 
in  Virginia,  77. 

Redstone,  179,  266. 

Reed,  Joseph,  245,  261 . 

Reformation.  See  Protestantism. 

Religion,  transformation  of,  168 
/.;  on  the  frontier,  175,  180, 
184;  politics  influenced  by, 
193;  John  Adams's  ideal  of, 
197;  Franklin's  idea  of,  198. 
See  Puritanism. 


INDEX 


xv 


Renaissance,  31. 
Representative  government.  See 

Government. 
Requisitions,  213. 
Restraining  Act,  226. 
Revolution  of  1688,  145,  147. 
Rhode   Island,    103,    107,  146, 

168. 

Rice,  130,  166. 
Riders,  assemblies  make  use  of, 

164. 

Rights.   See  Colonial  rights. 
Robinson,  John,  88,  90. 
Robinson,  Rev.  William,  186. 
Rochelle,  capture  of,  86. 
Rockingham  Whigs,  223. 
Rolfe,  John,  69. 
Rousseau,  Jean  Jacques,  196. 
Roxbury,  104. 
Rubruquis,  William  de,  9. 
Rum,  168,  216. 
Rutledge,  John,  246. 

Sagadahoc,  56. 

St.  Augustine,  Bishop  of  Hippo, 

84,  86. 

St.  Augustine,  town  of,  33. 
St.  Brandan,  Isles  of,  23. 
St.     John,     Henry,     Viscount 

Bolingbroke,  126,  171. 
St.  Louis,  Fort,  143. 
St.  Lucar,  28. 
Saint-Lusson,  141. 
St.  Paul,  84. 
Salem,  93,  100,  101. 
Sandwich,  Earl  of,  236. 
Sandys,  Sir  Edwin,  59,  61,  65. 
San  Domingo,  32. 
San  Juan  de  Ulloa,  41,  42. 
Santa  Maria,  25. 
Sanuto,  Marino,  15. 
Saratoga,  battle  of,  257,  260. 
Sault  Ste.  Marie,  141. 
Savannah,  262. 
Say  brook  Platform,  188. 
Schiltberger,  Johan,  9,  16. 
Schnell,  Rev.  Mr.,  186,  187. 
Schuyler,  Philip,  155. 


Sciota,  154. 

Scott.  John  Morin,  220. 

Scotch-Irish,  153,  177,  180,  242. 

Scrooby,  88. 

Seabury,  Samuel,  248. 

Senegal,  20. 

Separatists,  87^. 

"Servants,"  71,  176. 

Seven  Cities,  the,  23,  33. 

Seven  Years'  War,  156, 165, 191, 
204,  208,  214. 

Severac,  Jordanus  de,  9. 

Sewall,  Jonathan,  243,  244. 

Shaftesbury.   See  Cooper. 

Shenandoah  Valley,  178,  180. 

Shipbuilding,  168. 

Shirley,  William,  212,  242. 

"Simple  folk"  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  173. 

Six  Nations.  See  Indians,  Iro- 
quois. 

Slave  trade,  71,  150,  166. 

Slavery,  in  Virginia,  71;  in  Bar 
bados  and  the  Bahamas,  128; 
in  the  ^yest  Indies,  138;  slave 
population,  162;  in  Rhode 
Island,  168;  on  the  frontier, 
176,  183. 

Smith,  John,  56,  58. 

Smuggling.   See  Trade,  illicit. 

Smyth,  Sir  Thomas,  59,  63, 
65. 

Social  conditions,  in  England, 
66,  67,  70;  in  Virginia,  70,  78; 
in  New  England,  95,  113,  116, 
121;  in  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury,  166  ff.,  172;  on  the  fron 
tier,  175,  180,  184. 

Somers,  Sir  George,  56. 

Sons  of  Liberty.   See  Party. 

"Soul  Liberty,"  103,  107. 

South  Carolina,  founded,  128, 
129;  in  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury,  166,  175;  occupied  by 
the  British,  262;  laid  waste  by 
guerrilla  war,  267. 

Southampton,  Earl  of,  61. 

South  Sea,  30-32. 


XVI 


INDEX 


South  Sea  Company,  149,  150. 

Spain,  and  England,  34-37,  40, 
136. 

Spanish  exploration  and  settle 
ment  in  America,  31  ff. 

Spanish  Succession  War,  178. 

Specific  appropriations,  increase 
of  assemblies'  power  through, 
164. 

Spotswood,  Alexander,  164, 176. 

"Squatters"  in  Pennsylvania, 
178. 

Stamp  Act,  passed,  213^.314; 
opposition  to  the,  216,  218, 
220;  legal  and  illegal  methods 
of  resisting,  220,  221;  repeal, 
223;  effect  of  repeal,  224;  reso 
lution  of  frontier  counties  of 
Pennsylvania  on  the,  241. 

Staple  Act.  See  Navigation 
Acts. 

State  Governments,  241,  259, 
262. 

Strahan,  William,  170. 

Stuart  Restoration,  112,  125, 
128,  134. 

Suffolk  Resolutions,  First  Con 
gress  approves  the,  246. 

Suffrage,  75,  96,  99,  122,  132, 
165. 

Sugar  Act,  208,  215-18,  224. 

Sumptuary  legislation  in  Massa 
chusetts,  116. 

Swedes,  on  the  Delaware,  132. 

Synod  of  1679,  119. 

Syria,  13. 

Tabriz,  5,  8. 

Talon,  Intendant,  142. 

Tarleton,     Lieutenant-Colonel, 

267. 

Taxation.   See  Colonial  rights. 
Tea,  226,  231-33. 
Tennant,  Gilbert,  187. 
Tennessee  settlements,  267. 
Theocracy.    See  Massachusetts 

Bay. 
Thomas,  Major,  255. 


Tobacco,  and  the  founding  of 
Virginia,  62;  influence  on  Vir 
ginia  institutions,  69-71;  offi 
cial  corruption  in  connection 
with  the  sale  of,  77;  yields  rev 
enue  to  English  customs,  127; 
not  permitted  to  be  raised 
in  England,  130,  131;  Virginia 
staple  in  eighteenth  century, 
167. 

Tordesillas,  Treaty  of,  26. 

Toseanelli,  29. 

Town  meeting,  95,  99. 

Townshend,  Charles,  206,  225, 
230. 

Trade,  colonial  industry  and, 
120,  168,  130-34,  149,  166, 
215;  English  colonization  and, 
50/.,  125,  127,  129,  136,  138, 

139,  147,  150,  218,  221,  222, 
229;  illicit,  130-32.  140,  144, 
145,  150,  205;  Indian,  73,  76, 

140,  144,   145,   150,  152-56, 
207,    208-11;   Oriental,   4-6, 
13-15,  19. 

Trade  regulation.   See  Colonial 

control. 
Travelers,     thirteenth-century 

Oriental,  9-11. 

Treasure.  See  Precious  metals. 
Trebizond,  8= 
Trent,  William,  154. 
Trenton,  255,  256. 
Trinidad,  26. 
Turgot,  215. 
Turkestan,  5. 
Turks,  15,  17. 

Ulster,  177. 

Union.  See  Congress;  Nation 
ality. 

United  States,  271,  272. 
Up-country.   See  Frontier. 
Utrecht,  Peace  of,  150. 

Vaca,  Cabeza  de,  33. 
Valley  Forge,  259. 
Vandalia  Company,  211. 


INDEX 


xvn 


Vane,  Sir  Harry,  102. 

Van  Tyne,  Claude  Halsted,  259, 
note. 

Vassalboro,  175. 

Vaughan,  George,  148. 

Velasquez,  32. 

Venice,  6. 

Vera  Cruz,  150. 

Vergennes,  258,  259. 

Vermont,  175. 

Verrazano,  30,  38. 

Vespucci,  Americus,  27. 

Villeroi,  255. 

Vincennes,  265-67. 

Vindication  of  the  Government  of 
the  New  England  Churches, 
John  Wise's,  196. 

Virginia,  founded,  55;  royal 
province,  63;  growth  of,  67  ff.\ 
social  and  political  conditions 
in,  73  Jf.,  166,  172;  sectional 
conflict  in,  241 ;  instructs  dele 
gates  for  independence,  252; 
raided  by  British  troops,  262; 
cedes  Western  lands,  265; 
raided  by  Cornwallis,  269. 

"Virtual"  representation,  220. 

Virtue.   See  Civic  virtue. 

"Vital"  religion,  186  ff. 

Vivaldi,  the,  18. 

Voltaire,  Franklin  and,  199. 

Voyages,  Hakluyt's,  46. 

Wabash  River,  266. 

Waldseemiiller,  27. 

Walpole,  Horace,  Lord,  150. 

Walpole,  Horace,  Earl  of  Or- 
ford,  214,  236,  262. 

Walpole,  Robert,  Earl  of  Or- 
ford,  151. 

War  of  Independence,  253  ff. 

Warren,  Joseph,  239. 

Warwick,  Earl  of,  63. 

Washington,  Augustine,  154. 

Washington,  George,  builds 
Fort  Necessity,  157;  and  the 
Braddock  expedition,  192;  ap 
pointed  commander-in-chief 


of  the  Continental  Army, 
254;  early  campaigns  of 
the  war,  254-57;  thinks  the 
"game  nearly  up,"  255; 
amazed  at  Howe's  conduct, 
257;  at  Valley  Forge,  259; 
effort  to  bribe,  261;  criticism 
of,  264;  at  West  Point,  268;  at 
Yorktown,  261),  270;  bids  fare 
well  to  his  officers,  273;  army 
proposes  to  make  him  king, 
273. 

Washington,  Lawrence,  154. 

Watauga,  265. 

WTatertown,  98,  104. 

Watling's  Island,  25. 

Wealth,  colonial  aristocracy 
based  on,  166. 

Wedderburne,  Alexander,  225. 

Wentworth,  Thomas,  Earl  of 
Straff ord,  91. 

West.   See  Frontier. 

West  Indies,  trade  of  continen 
tal  colonies  with,  120, 150, 166; 
importance  for  English  colo 
nial  system,  138;  planters  in 
fluential  in  Parliament,  149. 

West  Point,  268. 

Western  lands,  ceded  to  the  Fed 
eral  Government,  265. 

Westward  movement,  104.  See 
Frontier. 

Wethersfield,  104. 

Whig  oligarchy,  attitude  toward 
the  colonies,  148jf.;  and  the 
Seven  Years'  War,  158. 

Whigs,  251,  271. 

Whitefield,  the  evangelist,  186, 
188,  199. 

Whitehall  Ferry,  273. 

White  Plains,  battle  of,  255. 

White  Woman's  Creek,  181. 

William  III,  126,  145. 

Wrilliams,  Roger,  100,  103,  116. 

Wills  Creek,  153. 

Wilmington,  269. 

Wilson,  John,  93,  102,  120. 

Windsor,  104. 


XV111 


INDEX 


Wing^  -Id,  Edward  Maria,  56. 
Winthrop,  John,  90,  93,  98, 102- 

105,  112,  115,  120. 
Wisconsin  River,  141. 
Wise,  John,  195. 
Witchcraft  delusion,  195. 
Witherspoon,  John,  194. 
Wrolfe,  James,  159. 
Woolen  manufactures,  151. 
Writs  of  assistance,  207. 


Yale  College,  169,  189. 

Yarkand,  5. 

Yeardley,  Governor  of  Virginia, 

75. 

York,  James,  Duke  of,  131. 
Yorktown,  surrender  of  Corn- 

wallis  at,  269.  270. 
Yucatan,  32. 

Zaiton,  8. 


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